Argentina's initial reaction to narrowly losing to England at Twickenham on Saturday was a mixture of relief, given their lack of preparation time, and pride because six of their players were amateurs, but that gave way today to an acute sense of disappointment at an opportunity lost.

"If I had the chance again, I would attack them more," said the Argentina coach, Santiago Phelan. "We came close to drawing the game but, having watched it again, it was a missed opportunity. We showed great pride in the jersey and we fought to the very end but I am not happy because the match was there for the winning and little things cost us."

Phelan said Argentina would show more ambition against Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. "We will have the advantage of another week together," he said. "I am not going to use the lack of time we had together before the England game as an excuse for the defeat. It certainly did not help our lineout but the chances were still there for us.

"We made one mistake in defence and it cost us a try, otherwise there was nothing between the sides. We are rebuilding after the 2007 World Cup and the older players are offering a lead for the younger, less experienced ones. We have long needed the stimulus of competition and entering the Tri-Nations in 2012 will be huge for us."

The Argentina scrum-half, Alfredo Lalanne, said Argentina would learn from the defeat by England. "We perhaps kicked a bit too much," he went on. "I spoke to my London Irish team-mate Paul Hodgson [the England scrum-half] after the game and he was a little bit disappointed even though they won. They were surprised by our defence and did not expect us to make so many tackles.

"We expect Wales to move the ball more and they play with a lot of flair. We will be stronger for having had a game and there are areas where we can gain an advantage, such as the scrum. The main thing to come from Twickenham was that we have to go for it."

Wales will be without their Lions centre Tom Shanklin, who suffered a nose injury against Samoa last Friday night after colliding with his team-mate, Gethin Jenkins. He is likely to be replaced by the Scarlets' Jonathan Davies when the side is named tomorrow, while the Ospreys' Andrew Bishop has been called up to train with the squad.