Argentina coach Mario Ledesma chose not to condemn the six players and two staff members who have been scrubbed from tomorrow's clash with the Wallabies for a COVID-19 border breach.
Former Pumas captain Pablo Matera – the team's best player – was one of the six along with starting prop Santiago Medrano and reserve hooker Santiago Socino.
The other players were Felipe Ezcurra, Joaquin Diaz Bonilla and Sebastian Cancelliere while manager Lucas Chioccarelli and video analyst Rodrigo Martinez also broke the rules by travelling from Queensland to New South Wales to visit a Byron Bay health retreat.
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Ledesma made five changes to his starting lineup for the Rugby Championship finale on the Gold Coast with the Pumas still searching for a first win in this year's tournament.
But he didn't want to talk about the eight squad members now stranded in NSW.
"All adversities forge bonds, they forge character as well," Ledesma said.
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"This team never makes excuses, never takes shortcuts.
"I am very proud of how this team commits itself, the determination it has.
"Sometimes it leads to results, sometimes it doesn't."
There are two new starting props in Rodrigo Martinez and Enrique Pieretto while lock Guido Petti is back for Matias Alemanno.
Rodrigo Bruni replaces Matera in the backrow while Matias Moroni comes in for Santiago Cordero on the right wing.
"I don't think it's time to qualify what was the feeling or not the feeling," former Wallabies assistant coach Ledesma said when asked about the border breach.
"What I can tell you is that we put our minds into the solution, not the problem.
"We started thinking: 'who's going to replace this player or that player? How are we going to prepare the boys to have the best game that they can and close the Rugby Championship like they deserve?'
"Our mind was put immediately into the focus on rugby and to prepare as best as possible… we will talk about that when the tournament is finished.
"Now, it's time for rugby. The rules were clear for everybody.
"It was a day off, they made that decision and the situation is what it is."
Neither was Pumas captain Julian Montoya interested in dwelling on the situation.
"We don't have excuses, we don't have shortcuts, we don't believe in that," Montoya said.
"We are thinking about the game. We want to play our best possible game.
"We are training so hard in this Rugby Championship for so long, so I think we deserve to have the game that we want to have."
PUMAS (15-1): Juan Cruz Mallia, Matias Moroni, Lucio Cinti, Santiago Chocobares, Emiliano Boffelli, Santiago Carreras, Gonzalo Bertranou, Rodrigo Bruni, Marcos Kremer, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Tomas Lavanini, Guido Petti, Enrique Pieretto, Julian Montoya (c), Rodrigo Martinez
Reserves: Facundo Bosch, Thomas Gallo, Eduardo Bello, Matias Alemanno, Francisco Gorrissen, Gonzalo Garcia, Domingo Miotti, Mateo Carreras
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