London: Argentina captain Agustin Pichot has said victory against world champions England at Twickenham on Saturday would be a 'massive' achievement for the Pumas.

The South Americans have won just two of their previous 11 encounters against England with one draw.

They have yet to enjoy a victory at Twickenham although they came close in 1996 during a 20-18 defeat.
But they now find themselves up against an England side that have lost their last six matches and are on the brink of equalling their worst run since 1971/72 when they suffered seven successive defeats.

Stade Francais scrum-half Pichot, who previously played for English clubs Richmond and Bristol, was in no doubt about what a win this weekend would mean to him.

"I've never beaten England in England," the 32-year-old told reporters after coach Marcelo Loffreda announced the team at Argentina's hotel here Thursday," he said.

 "I've lived here, I've played here and I respect this country highly. Personally, it would be something massive, Argentina beating the world champions. We cannot hide that," Pichot said.

Argentina, in their three June home Tests, twice beat Wales before losing by just 19-25 against world number one and 2007 World Cup favourites New Zealand  a team that beat England 41-20 last weekend as the world champions suffered their biggest margin of defeat at Twickenham.

"Our objective is still to prove we can compete against the best teams in the world and beat them," added Pichot, who earlier this week said Argentina deserved to be included in one of rugby union's major annual international tournaments such as the Tri-Nations or Six Nations.

"We are still underdogs. The only thing that has changed is the perspective of the media towards the England team. That has changed massively," he said.

Argentina coach Marcelo Loffreda restored Felipe Contepomi to his club position of fly-half having used him at inside centre against the All Blacks.

"We know that Felipe is playing in a very good way for (Irish province) Leinster so we want to see him as No 10," Loffreda said after comments by Pichot on Tuesday that Contepomi was even better than New Zealand outside-half Dan Carter, who last weekend scored 26 points against England.

Asked if now was an especially good time for Argentina to be playing a beleaguered England side, Loffreda replied: "Always for us is a good time to play against England.

"It's one of the best teams in the world. We know they are not having a good sequence of games but they are always strong. They have a lot of tradition, they have a lot of pride so we know it will be a very big challenge for both teams on Saturday," he said.

And he tried to play down expectations, saying this match was just one more on the road to the next year's World Cup in France.

"It doesn't matter if we don't win. This is a preparation for us, part of the path to the World Cup. We have some young players and we wanted them to gain more experience on this tour. That's the main thing for us," he said.

Only one member of the Pumas starting line-up, left wing Pablo Gomez Cora, doesn't play his club rugby in Europe, a clear sign of how the Pumas' standards have risen in recent years.

After this match, Argentina's tour of Europe continues with November Tests in Italy and France.