SYDNEY - Argentina have been planning for five months for 80 minutes of rugby in Adelaide tomorrow.
The Pumas' hopes hang on the game against Ireland - a loss will confirm their exit from the tournament, while a win will send them into the knockout stages, provided Australia beat Ireland as
well.
When the draw was released, coach Marcelo Loffreda started working on a plan which targeted the match against Ireland above all others.
With their four pool matches jammed into a 17-day period, Loffreda had to work out a way to have his best players as fresh as possible for a headlong tilt at theIrish.
So far he has kept his stars in cotton wool, with captain and halfback Agustin Pichot having played one full game and 20 minutes against Romania in Sydney on Wednesday.
Hooker Frederico Mendez, who should start against Ireland after Mario Ledesma's awful throwing into the lineout against Australia and Romania, has played only 80 minutes at this tournament.
Loffreda has also made sparing use of his best props and rotated his back-rowers carefully to keep the heavyweight pack as fresh as possible.
He said it was a plan drawn up as far back as May 3, when Argentina started their cup preparations.
"We tried to plan it from the first game of the year ... what we are doing is pretty similar to what we planned before coming here."
The main hiccup in the grand plan was the loss of captain and centre Lisandro Arbizu to a knee injury in the final warm-up game just a month before the tournament.
That has thrown the Pumas' backline into some disarray and Loffreda has had to experiment during the tournament.
So far he has used three different centre combinations and three different first five-eighths, resulting in some chaotic backline play.
A "horses-for-courses" selection policy has cost Australian-raised flanker Keith Gleeson a berth in the Irish lineup.
Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan said it would be the most pressured situation he had faced as a coach.
"It's a very big game, it's a huge game, it's a game that could define our World Cup, that's the reality of it," he said.
"We know if we win on Sunday we've achieved our goal for the tournament, at least our first goal, which is to get to the quarter-finals, so that's pressure."
Gleeson, a hard-working flanker who returned from Australia to his birthplace, Ireland, to pursue his cup dream, was left out of the side, despite having been a regular fixture in recent times.
O'Sullivan said it was a case of selecting the back row that could best combat the highly physical Argentinian side, rather than necessarily the best players Ireland had.
"We're going a different road with our back row in this game.
"It's something we had discussed a long time back among ourselves and always said that this match would be a different game for that reason and we would cut our cloth to suit it.
"When you have some depth, and quality depth in certain sectors of your team, it's very judicious to pick horses for courses."
O'Sullivan said he had also faced a tough decision selecting a starting five-eighths, plumping for David Humphreys over Lions tourist Ronan O'Gara.
- AGENCIES
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SYDNEY - Argentina have been planning for five months for 80 minutes of rugby in Adelaide tomorrow.
The Pumas' hopes hang on the game against Ireland - a loss will confirm their exit from the tournament, while a win will send them into the knockout stages, provided Australia beat Ireland as
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