Cape Town - Argentina head coach Mario Ledesma has included five European-based players in his 46-man squad ahead of the Rugby Championship and World Cup.

Los Pumas’ group had previously been made up of individuals solely from the Jaguares’ Super Rugby team, but those rules have relaxed slightly over recent times.

That means Ledesma has decided to call upon Juan Figallo (Saracens), Ramiro Herrera (Stade Francais), Facundo Isa (Toulon), Nicolas Sanchez (Stade Francais) and Benjamin Urdapilleta (Castres).

Ledesma said: “We take certain selection criteria as a reference. Some outsiders were called based on the selection criteria and are those that we believe add value over the players we have here (in Argentina). That does not mean that, before an injury, we do not resort to outside players. Today, this is the list of those who will work in this first stage of preparation.”

Argentina’s 46-man squad

Prop: Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Mayco Vivas, Juan Pablo Zeiss, Javier Díaz, Santiago García Botta, Juan Figallo, Ramiro Herrera, Santiago Medrano, Enrique Pieretto, Lucio Sordoni

Hooker: Agustín Creevy, Julián Montoya, Santiago Socino

Second-row: Guido Petti, Tomás Lavanini, Matías Alemanno, Lucas Paulos 77

Back-row: Pablo Matera, Tomás Lezana, Facundo Isa, Javier Ortega Desio, Marcos Kremer, Rodrigo Bruni, Juan Manuel Leguizamón

Scrumhalf: Tomás Cubelli, Gonzalo Bertranou, Martín Landajo, Felipe Ezcurra

Flyhalf: Nicolás Sánchez, Benjamín Urdapilleta, Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, Domingo Miotti

Centre: Santiago González Iglesias, Jerónimo De La Fuente, Matías Orlando, Matías Moroni, Lucas Mensa, Juan Cruz Mallía, Bautista Ezcurra

Back three: Ramiro Moyano, Bautista Delguy, Sebastián Cancelliere, Emiliano Boffelli, Joaquín Tuculet, Manuel Montero, Santiago Carreras