Frank Hadden, the Scotland head coach, underlined the need for victory in the forthcoming Test matches against Argentina if his team are to improve their prospects in the 2011 World Cup.

GABRIEL BATALLA, in Buenos Aires

Frank Hadden, the Scotland head coach, underlined the need for victory in the forthcoming Test matches against Argentina if his team are to improve their position in the International Rugby Board rankings, and their prospects in the 2011 World Cup.

The first Test is on Saturday at Rosario, before the teams meet again a week later in Buenos Aires and Hadden told a press conference that his priorities for the games have changed.

"It is very important for us to win these games," he said. "We understand that the World Cup places now depend on the world ranking, so these are not isolated matches."

"First I thought that this could be a development opportunity for some players.

We started this phase 13 months ago, but the IRB's decision to base seedings for the World Cup on their rankings changed our work."

Hadden believes his squad are strong enough, even though Scott Murray, his most-capped player, was not released by his French side, Montauban, while Sean Lamont, Jason White, Jim Hamilton, Scott Lawson and Ross Rennie missed the tour because of injury.

He continued: "We brought the best side available. We lost some players through injury and other reasons, but we did not name a development team. The purpose of this trip is not to develop players any more.

"The last time we went on tour to South Africa, we took only 26 players and a small management team. This time we have taken 30 players and a large management team. We have some uncapped players in our group, but the bottom line is that we are here to win."

The Scots face a tough challenge as they have not beaten Argentina since 1990, when they defeated the Pumas 49-3 at Murrayfield.

Hadden has a healthy respect for his opponents. "There is a very different rugby culture here and we are very respectful of that," he said. "We've never beaten Argentina Under-19 and Under-21 teams, so we are fully aware of how difficult it is going to be."

The coach admitted he is not familiar with players who play domestic rugby in Argentina. "We all know the international players, but the local ones are not well known to us, which could be a problem," he said. "At the same time, that helps us to focus on ourselves and not worry too much about the opposition."

Mike Blair, the captain, believes it will important to prevent Argentina from impressing in front of their fans. "Argentina have a lot of pride and are playing their first game since the World Cup in front of their home support," he said. "They will be very keen to make a good show. It will take a big effort from us to stop their momentum and influence in the game."

He expects them to be anything but a soft touch despite the absence of many of their top players.

They suffered more from the fact that the French championship is still in full swing, with many of their front-liners forced to remain with their clubs.

"There is no danger of us underestimating them because, no matter who is available to them, it is going to be a massive challenge," said Blair. "We are pretty sure that they will play to their strengths. They will be fit, fast, strong and competitive at the breakdown. They'll be totally uncompromising in every contact situation.

"There is no doubt we will have to be at the top of our game to beat them, but I'm sure we'll have a few tricks up our sleeve which will hopefully take them a bit by surprise."

nRob Moffat, head coach of Scotland A, has decided to launch his Churchill Cup campaign with 27 players.

Moffat was expected to call an additional forward into the A group but, with Scott Murray not released by Mont-auban for the senior tour to Argentina, there has been a knock-on effect to seconds.

Only four players have yet to join the squad in Canada. Colin Gregor, Greig Laidlaw, Andrew Turnbull and Jim Thompson will fly out today with Stevie Gemmell, the assistant coach. They were all involved in the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens at Murrayfield over the weekend where they recorded a historic first win over Fiji en route to the plate final.