England fly-half George Ford has warned the Six Nations champions to prepare for a “hostile” atmosphere when they travel to Argentina for a two-Test series next month.
Ford, along with several other players in the England squad, may have been overlooked for the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand but he insisted there was no time for regrets ahead of a testing trip to South America.
With several first-choice players on Lions duty, England coach Eddie Jones has selected a mixture of experience hands and raw novices, with little in between, for the Argentina series.
Facing the Pumas will be a new experience for some members of a revamped England squad but not Ford.
“The one thing, playing with Argentinian players as well, and against them, they’re so passionate about the game that that’s the type of game you’re going to come up against,” Ford told AFP at England’s south coast training camp in Brighton.
“The fans are just (as) passionate and emotional as the players are, it’ll be hostile.
“On the pitch they’ll be physical, they get into you and they pride themselves on being physical, so it’s something we’ve got to be excited about and take that challenge front on.
“If you want to win any Test match these days you’ve probably got to win the physicality battle and the Argentinians are probably up there with the world’s best at that,” he added.
Ford, who is returning to Leicester from English Premiership rivals Bath in time for the start of the 2017/18 season, cited Pumas wing Horacio Agulla, now with French club Castres, as a case in point.
“I used to play with Horacio Agulla, at Leicester and Bath.
“He never looked like a massive winger by any stretch of the imagination, but he punched way above his weight, he used to fly into tackles, he used to fly into carries and I thought that summed Argentina up really, just go at everything 100 percent, be emotional and show that with their physicality.
“They’re obviously very nice guys off the pitch but they flick a switch on it.”