Wyllie wary of hungry Irish

A shadow of a smile creased the craggy visage of Alex `Grizz' Wyllie as he considered the raised expectations following Argentina's victory over Scotland at Murrayfield last weekend. This week the former All Black player and coach has prepared Argentina for the different demands imposed by Ireland at Lansdowne Road.

A case of forewarned is forearmed for Irish coach Warren Gatland following the Argentinians deserved victory over the Scots? Wyllie concurs: "Saturday will be more difficult as a result of the Scottish match. We have served notice of what we are capable of and Ireland will not be caught by surprise.

"I think the Scots believed they were in for a pretty easy game. They were a bit rusty having not played for quite a while." Wyllie though is too experienced (he coached New Zealand from 19881991) to have his head turned by a single result. Indeed, he preferred to dwell on the virtues of a good performance against Ireland rather than over emphasising the desire for victory.

"The priority for us will be a good performance. If we achieve that then we will score points. A victory would be great but we are looking to develop from the Scottish match and try and put a few more things together. We need to be more organised in several areas."

Wyllie conceded that he was surprised by the facile nature of the Argentinian midweek side's victory over Leinster at Donnybrook. His experiences with New Zealand as a player and coach suggested that the match would be far more competitive than it transpired. "It was not as hard as I thought it would be and I was surprised that we won so well.

"Irish teams have a tradition for making things tough and I had experience of this with the All Blacks." He conceded that he hadn't had an opportunity to analyse in any detail Saturday's opponents. "I was based in Argentina during the Five Nations Championship and we didn't see a lot of it down there: obviously several of the players are familiar to me.

"I expect Ireland to be difficult opponents, playing their normal robust game. They will have players determined to make an impression prior to the announcement of a World Cup squad," Wyllie said before commenting that it was a similar situation for the tourists. "There is still an opportunity for players within the Argentina squad to push their case.

"We took 34 players on this tour so four are going to have to drop out, injuries aside. Nobody wants to be in that number," Wyllie said.

Argentina has made two changes from the Scottish Test. Outstanding scrum-half Agustin Pichot and influential flanker Rolando Martin drop to the bench and are replaced by Nicolas Fernandez Miranda - he captained Argentina to victory over Leinster - and Santiago Phelan respectively.

Wyllie explained: "Agustin was excellent against the Scots but we wanted to give Miranda a chance. In the case of the two flankers we are looking to different aspects of the game. One (Martin) started the last day, this time the other (Phelan) begins. There will be some subbing done depending on how the game goes."

Argentina trained firstly at Belfield yesterday before moving to the quieter surroundings of Merrion Road to do some scrummaging. The tourists will return home after Saturday's game and are planning to stay together on their return to Argentina. Wyllie confirmed that they are hoping to arrange a match behind closed doors late next month prior to arriving in Wales on September 23rd to prepare for the World Cup proper.