Phelan relishing visit of Scots

Phelan: Still no word of Agustín Pichot's replacement

New Argentina coach Santiago Phelan is relishing the opportunity to see how his new charges compete against Scotland next month.

The 44-cap flank, who retired through injury in 2003, was unveiled in March as successor to the highly regarded Marcelo Loffreda, who left to join Leicester Tigers after guiding the national team to third place in the World Cup.

The 34-year-old may find it tricky to field his strongest side in the Tests on June 7 and 14, as his Europe-based players could still be involved in club competitions.

Phelan said: "We will try to have our best players. We will see if the European clubs will release them or not.

"We must remember some of them will surely reach the final stages of their respective leagues so maybe we will not count on them.

"We have a long road left before naming the squad to play Scotland and we have just started training. We will not know which names will form it until the last minute, as we do not know what conditions players will be under.

"I hope I can field the best squad possible but there are a lot of players still competing in their leagues."

Phelan is leading the national team for the first time and expects no let-up in the workload ahead of his debut at Estadio Gigante de Arroyito.

He said: "I am anxious but focused on the work that I have so there has not been time to think. I guess I will be more anxious as the Test is coming up.

"I am sure the stadium will be full of people.

"I have not started to watch how Scotland play at length, as I am focused on our players' training and talking to players abroad. I am sure they are motivated because they will face the team who finished third in the World Cup, so they will play to the death."

The first decision Phelan made as Argentina coach was to name a 35-man home-based squad to train for six weeks, so they will be in the same condition as the Europe-based players.

The squad are training every Monday and Wednesday in five different regions - Buenos Aires, Tucumán, Rosario, Cordoba and Mendoza.

Phelan said: "On Monday morning they train physically. At night, we mix physical and technical stimulation and on Wednesdays we teach them the technical concepts and movements the Pumas had until last year.

"We have not met altogether since the last World Cup and will not do it until the week prior to the first Test, so home-based players can get used to the movements and codes the national team have.

"This is the third week players have been doing this and next week we will have them altogether in Buenos Aires. Then we will train and decide which players will be part of the Argentina A team who will come to Rosario with us.

"I am totally satisfied with what we have. We are training players who play here and then the ones from abroad will join us."

Captain Agustín Pichot retired from international rugby after the World Cup and Argentina need a new scrum-half to replace him, but Phelan refused to reveal who will wear the number nine jersey against the Scots.

He said: "It is too soon to start talking about names, but there are five scrum-halves among the 35 players training in Argentina and some others abroad."

Matias Greco in Buenos Aires