Argentina coach Marcelo Loffreda will today reveal the identity of his outhalf for Friday's opening World Cup match against hosts France.

The Pumas coach will choose between place-kicker Federico Todeschini, no longer an injury concern after a worrying few days, the tough-tackling Felipe Contepomi or Juan Martin Hernandez, who normally plays at fullback.

"We don't know any more than you do and we're just as anxious to know what the team will be," lock Rimas Alvarez told reporters yesterday.

Todeschini, the main points scorer in Argentina's victory over England at Twickenham last November, has a near 100 per cent success rate with the boot.

Loffreda may, though, want the greater creativity of Hernandez, who prefers to play at outhalf where he ended last season for Stade Francais in partnership with Pumas captain Agustin Pichot. Leinster's Contepomi, the best defender of the trio and also versatile in attack, will play at inside centre if he is not picked at outhalf.

Alvarez, in his second World Cup, is likely to start among the replacements with Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe and Patricio Albacete the preferred locks.

Like most matches between Argentina and the French in recent years, Alvarez expects the Pool D encounter to be a close affair.

"I think it's going to be a close match in the score and surely in the play as well. It will be a game of forwards. In the majority of these matches, the result was settled in the final minutes and by only a few points."

France will sacrifice flair in order to win by any means possible, veteran lock Fabien Pelous said yesterday.

France have lost four of their last five matches against the Pumas and struggled to beat them 27-26 last November in Paris.

"If we beat them by the same margin this time, that'll suit me," Pelous siad at France's training camp outside the French capital. "The quality of the game we will play is not what I'm worried about. Only the result counts."