The final action in Round 4 of the Rugby Championship comes from Santa Fe on Saturday where Argentina are looking for revenge after losing to Australia last weekend.
Argentina v Australia, Saturday 7th September, Santa Fe, KO 21:00 (South African time)
Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)
Assistant Referees: Ben O'Keeffe (NZR), James Doleman (NZR)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)
Weather Forecast – Santa Fe
Argentina:
Los Pumas were 7.5 point favourites for last week's clash with the Wallabies in Buenos Aires but despite leading 16-7 at one stage they finished on the losing side as the Wallabies edged the contest 20-19. Argentina scored the first 10 points of the game and Juan Martin Gonzalez was their try scorer in the first half. It was 13-7 to the hosts by half time but the Wallabies stayed in the game and after the lead changed hands a couple of times a penalty on the hooter won it for Australia.
Argentina had started their tournament by taking on the All Blacks twice in New Zealand. They were 16.5 point underdogs for the opening match in Wellington but sprang a big surprise in coming out on top 38-30. The Round 2 clash in Auckland was a totally different story with the All Blacks racing into a 35-3 half time lead and in wet conditions the scoring eased up with the final score being 42-10.
After this Argentina host the Springboks and their final match will see them travel to Nelspruit for the return in South Africa.
Australia:
Ben Donaldson sealed the Wallabies first log points of the tournament in last week's win in Buenos Aires. They scored 2 tries (Gordon and Valetini) to Argentina's 1, both converted by Lolesio who was also on target with a penalty. After 3 rounds of matches the Wallabies remain bottom of the standings with 4 points, 1 shy of Argentina, New Zealand have 6 points and South Africa are top with 14.
The Wallabies began their campaign with two defeats at home to the Springboks. They were given around 10.5 points start on the handicap for the Round 1 clash with the Boks in Brisbane and they crashed to a 33-7 defeat. In Round 2 in Perth South Africa won 30-12, covering a pre-match handicap that settled at around 12.5 points and scoring 4 unanswered tries.
Looking ahead to the rest of this tournament Australia will finish up at home and then away to the All Blacks.
Team News
Argentina: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Joel Sclavi, 2 Julian Montyoa (captain), 1 Thomas Gallo
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Joaquin Oviedo, 21 Santiago Grondona, 22 Gonzalo Garcia, 23 Santiago Carreras
Australia: 15 Andrew Kellaway, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Len Ikitau, 12 Hamish Stewart, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Ben Donaldson, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson (captain), 7 Carlo Tizzano, 6 Rob Valentini, 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell.
Replacement: 16 Josh Nasser, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Josh Canham, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Tom Lynagh, 23 Josh Flook
Recent Head to Head
2024 RC Buenos Aires Argentina 19-20 Australia
2023 RC Sydney Australia 31–34 Argentina
2022 RC San Juan Argentina 48-17 Australia
2022 RC Mendoza Argentina 26-41 Australia
2021 RC Gold Coast (Aus) Australia 32–17 Argentina
2021 RC Townsville (Aus) Australia 27–9 Argentina
2020 Tri Nations Sydney Australia 16–16 Argentina
2020 Tri Nations Newcastle Australia 15–15 Argentina
The Betting -
Update 5 September 23h39
Argentina -4.5 points at 9/10
New Zealand +4.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
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This handicap has been fairly stable at Argentina -4.5 all week.
I took a late call to back Australia to win at 28/10 last week and after a frustrating start they pulled off a great win in tough conditions.
The weather forecast looks great for this match though and I like the early points line of 49.5.
My preference though is for Australian points.
If I place any additional bets I will post them here with any really late plays posted in the forum
BET: 4 units Australia over 22.5 points at 10/11 at Pokerbet*
*You can open a Pokerbet Account by clicking here
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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