Without all players who are living n Europe, Pumas coach Marcelo Loffreda yesterday held the first Argentinian "trial" match of the year.
A total of 33 players took part in an informal match where Argentina XV beat Uruguay by 69-0 at Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club ground.
Later, in May, Argentina and Uruguay will participate in the 4th edition of the Pan Am Rugby Championship with Canada and Unted States. The competition will be at three different venues of the Ontario province in Canada.
Rolando Martín (3), Maximiliano Nannini (2), Juan José Villar, Francisco Lleonelli, Jose Orengo, Rimas Alvarez and Carlos Rojas scored 10 tries for the Pumas, who will hopefully receive plenty of support from Bristol for the Pan Am Championship.
Loffreda hopes that Agustin Pichot, Felipe Contepomi and Eduardo Simone will join the pre-selection squad as soon as Bristol finish the Zurich Premier League.
On the other hand Loffreda is not so confident about players who are in France, because they will involved at the play off stage. Former captain and lock Pedro Sporleder and back row Pablo Camerlinckx are back in the squad having had the entire of year 2000 off. Both of them played well yesterday's trial.
The bad from the trial match was injuries to back row Santiago Phelan, Gonzlo Longo and prop Julio García, all of them going down with knee problems. Doctor Mario Larrain said the "they need around one month to be fit again, perhaps they will lost to the Pan Am Championship".
Also José Orengo, Hugo Dande and Roberto Travaglini left the trial with slight injuries.
During the coming week Loffreda will announce the 26 players squad for the trip to Canada, where they will face Uruguay (May 19th), USA (23rd) and Canada (26th) in only seven days.