WALES left for the first leg of their summer tour of Argentina and South Africa last night with Mike Ruddock warning: "Argentina are out to beat us up."

The new Wales coach said a Test series in Argentina was the most intimidating of all and said he would find out a great deal about his young squad in South America.

And though he said Wales were not looking for confrontation, he promised they would front up while also trying to maintain an expansive game in a bid to repeat the great 2-0 series win in Argentina in 1996.

"Colin Charvis (Wales skipper) has spoken to one of the Argentine props who is out in France and said the bottom line was that they were looking to beat Wales up," said Ruddock.

"To me that's a real compliment because they're obviously worried about our pace and footballing ability and want to drag us into a street brawl.

"It's vital not to get too distracted by any intimidation and to keep to our game plan to play the ball away from the Argentinian forwards.

"Discipline is going to be very important. Once you start losing players you are weakened, so we don't want players getting involved in individual conflicts and being sent off.

"But what we don't want either is touch rugby. We don't want people to go out there and not front up in the ruck, lineout and maul and all the physical aspects of the game.

"We have to hit above our weight in tackles and that's where we hurt people, not in one to one fighting or things of that nature."

Ruddock knows all about the intimidating atmosphere in Argentina.

He was there with Swansea in the 1980s when they were pelted with fruit and there was almost a riot when the All Whites were awarded a last minute penalty.

Swansea kicked it, but the referee immediately awarded the Argentinians a penalty which they kicked to win the game and prevent a pitch invasion.

Wales were involved in a touchline bust-up in the Second Test on their last tour.

"Lyn Howells (ex Warriors coach) was forwards coach to Graham Henry on that tour and spoke to us and showed us some footage," said Ruddock.

"He wanted the forwards to hold the Argentinian power up front and play wide as he felt Argentina would play quite a narrow game and use the macho route.

"Wales were out to beat them with some width on the basis that they were going to match their forward power and that's really the same thing that we're after."

He added: "What we are hoping to do is try to win our games, but over and above that we want to master the defensive structure we employed against the Barbarians.

"I also want us to come out of the tour with a lot of credibility up front and show we can hold the Argentinian scrum and driving maul power.

"And I want to see us retain the flair and width that we've got.

"Our players are all playing in Europe now and in the Celtic League and are used to going to intimidating away venues and performing.

"We'll find out a lot about ourselves as a coaching team and about our players on this tour and that's exactly what we want."

Ruddock has arranged to contact Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan for an update on South Africa's strengths and weaknesses as Ireland are due to meet them twice before Wales face them.

Wales full back Gareth Thomas is staying home for treatment to his ankle injury and will join up with his team-mates next weekend. He hopes to be fit for the Second Test against Argentina on June 19.