TIME to ring the changes for the final weekend of the truncated Rugby Championship and for the Pumas, eight players who played in the 34-9 drubbing by the Wallabies two weekends ago have been dropped from the starting 15.
Just how bad their performance was in the judgment of coach Daniel Hourcade is reflected in the decision to drop all three backrowers, including former captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe.
For the Wallabies game Hourcade made seven changes from the run-on 15 against the All Blacks the week before but at that time the changes were seen as necessary to test the combinations ahead of the World Cup starting next month.
This time though the changes are interpreted as being influenced more by form.
Furthermore the Argentinians, having lost their first two matches, need a much improved performance against the Springboks this weekend in Durban to boost their morale ahead of the World Cup.
Those who have been watching their matches in this tournament since 1012 could tell that their first two matches this year were below par compared to their form in the first three years of participation.
In fact in terms of ranking the Pumas have seen a decline in the last several years.
They used to be as high as third in the world, although only for a while, but in 2007 in France did well to beat host France to be placed third in the World Cup.
The Springboks too could be making a few changes to give players recovering from injury much-needed game time at Test level.
It could however be a different scenario for the championship decider between the Wallabies and the All Blacks in Sydney, with the former hoping to win against their trans-Tasman rivals for the first time since 2011.
Victory is also a must if the hosts want to have any hope of wresting back the Bledisloe Cup, a trophy the All Blacks have held since 2002.
Given this situation coach Michael Cheika may not want to disrupt the combinations too much from two weeks ago because they too need a morale booster ahead of the World Cup.
The question in New Zealand is whether Steve Hansen should again experiment with new combinations before he decides on the 31 players to make his World Cup squad or play his strongest team against opponents they hate to lose to and who by some reckoning appear not to give them due respect as a top rugby-playing nation.
Most likely coach Steven Hansen will continue to experiment but without being reckless.
The two teams play again next week in Auckland for the Bledisloe Cup while the Boks will travel to Argentina to play the Pumas but with the results for both not having an influence on the Rugby Championship.
In Fiji the smiles are wide after their rugby boys scored a 39-29 win over Samoa to win the Pacific Nations title, in the process showing their spectacular attacking flair to score five tries against three.
They play England in the RWC opening match on September 18 and England would do well not to ignore the damage the best of Fijian rugby can do.
But on the downside Fiji and the rest of the Pacific Islanders tend to lack the composure when things aren’t going their way.
In the seven editions of RWC so far Fiji have participated in six and reached the quarter-final in 1987 and 2007. Their best world ranking was ninth.
It was also in the inaugural RWC in 1987 that they beat Wales 38-34 in one of the competition’s most exciting matches but in 2011 the Fijians suffered a meltdown as they lost to the same opponents 66-0.
They may be a better side now but to advance beyond the quarter-finals in the RWC, they will need more than just the ability to attack.