All Blacks to play at La Plata against Argentina

Reuters

OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Fireworks explode over the refurbished Estadio Unico de La Plata during its re-inauguration in February 2011. New Zealand's All Blacks will play their Rugby Championship match against Argentina there in 2012.

The All Blacks will play in South America's only roofed stadium when lining out against Argentina in rugby's new four-nation southern hemisphere championship.

Argentina's Rugby Union (UAR) this morning confirmed that all three of their matches in their debut season in the Rugby Championship would be played outside the capital, Buenos Aires.

The Pumas will play South Africa in Mendoza on August 25, world champions New Zealand in La Plata on September 29 and Australia in Rosario on October 6.

"The choice was made with the objective of following a federal line, taking the Pumas to play in the interior of the country so everyone can enjoy our national team," UAR president Luis Castillo said.

When the new four-nation southern hemisphere championship was presented at a news conference in Buenos Aires a month ago, Sanzar, the body representing the other three nations, said it favoured playing at least two of the matches in Buenos Aires.

Sources close to the UAR said the decision was the most economically sound for the game's national governing body.

Mendoza is 1000km west of Buenos Aires, Rosario 350km to the north and La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires province with the only stadium in South America with a roof, 60km away.

All three venues are football stadiums, in Mendoza the Malvinas Argentinas built for the 1978 World Cup, in Rosario the Gigante de Arroyito ground of Rosario Central, which also held 1978 World Cup matches, and in La Plata the municipal Estadio Unico.

- Reuters