Juan Imhoff

Argentina lost their way following last month’s historic 21-17 victory over Australia in the Rugby Championship, wing Juan Imhoff admitted on Monday.

Since that first success in the Four Nations competition at the 18th attempt, Argentina have lost against Scotland (41-31) and narrowly beaten Italy (20-18) but they failed to produce the kind of performance that undid the Wallabies.

“We still don’t have sufficient maturity to climb the international ladder,” said the Racing-Metro wing.

“After Australia we lost our heads a bit. We thought we could beat Scotland because we’d beaten Australia.

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“But the northern hemisphere teams play differently to those from the south and concentrate a lot on the breakdown battle and contact.”

The Pumas take on France — fresh from their own 29-26 victory over Australia last Saturday – this weekend at the Stade de France in Paris and Imoff admits there is trepidation in the camp.

“But it’s good to worry. France have just beaten Australia and put 40 points on Fiji.

“We’re always concerned ahead of an international test match and France are a strong team with young players who have proved themselves at international level.

“That’s what worries us. If we don’t work hard all week, we’ll be in trouble.”

Argentina also have injury concerns over hooker and captain Agustin Creevy and No 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamon.

Both have been carrying ankle injuries and trained individually Monday before Worcester’s Creevy eventually joined the squad at the end of the session.