The first of Saturday's Rugby Championship Round 2 matches sees New Zealand bid to avenge a shock defeat last week when they face off with Argentina in Auckland.
New Zealand v Argentina, Saturday 17th August, Auckland, KO 09:05 (South African time)
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (RA), Nic Berry (RA)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)
Weather Forecast – Auckland
Rugby Championship 2024 Outright Betting
Following last week's opening round results the outright betting has South Africa are 1 / 3 (from 4/6) favourites to win the Rugby Championship title with New Zealand at 3/1 (from 29/20), Argentina are 9/1 (from 20/1) and Australia are 120/1 (from 28/1)
(Prices World Sports Betting).
New Zealand:
The All Blacks came in for a touch of market support for their Round 1 clash with Los Pumas in Wellington with the defending champions starting as favourites on the handicap at around 16.5 points. However they fluffed their lines and slipped to a first defeat under Scott Robertson, eventually going down 38-30.
New Zealand led 20-15 at half time but the lead changed hands a further three times in the second half and it was Los Pumas who finished the stronger. Darry and Lienert-Brown in the first half and Tele’a in the second were the AB's try scorers, all converted by McKenzie who also landed 3 penalties.
Robertson's first assignment as coach of the All Blacks was a two match home series against England in July and they had to dig deep to to win both games, 16-15 in the first test and 24-17 in the second. Their prep for this tournament saw them demolish Fiji 47-5.
The All Blacks won the shortened 2023 Rugby Championship, beating Argentina 41-12 in Mendoza, the Springboks 35-20 in Auckland and the Wallabies 38-7 in Melbourne.
Looking ahead to the rest of this tournament New Zealand will next face back to back games away to the Boks. In Round 5 they visit the Wallabies before hosting the same opponent in the return in the final round.
Argentina:
Santiago Carreras landed 7 of his 8 shots at goal in Wellington in Round 1. Los Pumas “won” the try count 4-3 with Cinti, Mateo Carreras, Molina and Creevy all going over for only their third ever win over New Zealand.
Argentina's international schedule in July saw them share a two match home series against France. They lost the first test 28-13 but squared things up with a 33-25 victory in the second contest. After that they put Uruguay away 79-5.
In the 2023 Rugby Championship Argentina went down 41-12 at home to New Zealand, they beat the Wallabies 34-31 in Sydney and lost 22-21 to the Boks in Johannesburg to finish in third spot.
After this Argentina host the Wallabies twice in Rounds 3 and 4. In Round 5 they are at home to the Springboks and their final match will see them travel to Nelspruit for the return in South Africa.
Team News
New Zealand: 15 Beauden Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Ardie Savea (captain), 7 Dalton Papali’i, 6 Ethan Blackadder, 5 Sam Darry, 4 Tupou Vaa’i, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Tamaiti Williams.
Replacements: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Sam Cane, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Mark Tele’a
Argentina: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Matias Moroni, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Joaquin Oviedo, 7 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 4 Marcos Kremer, 3 Lucio Sordoni, 2 Julian Montoya (captain),1 Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Tomas Lavanini, 20 Franco Molina, 21 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 22 Tomas Albornoz, 23 Bautista Delguy
Recent Head to Head
2024 RC Wellington New Zealand 30-38 Argentina
2023 RWC Paris Argentina 6-44 New Zealand (Semi Final)
2023 RC Mendoza Argentina 12-41 New Zealand
2022 RC Hamilton New Zealand 53-3 Argentina
2022 RC Christchurch New Zealand 18-25 Argentina
2021 RC Brisbane New Zealand 36-13 Argentina
2021 RC Gold Coast New Zealand 39-0 Argentina
2020 TN Newcastle New Zealand 38-0 Argentina
2020 TN Sydney New Zealand 25-15 Argentina
The Betting -
Posted 16 August 13h22
New Zealand -14.5 points at 9/10
Argentina +14.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
I grabbed stock of the opening -12.5 New Zealand as I expected this handicap to start around -15.5. There has been movement but the market seems to have settled at New Zealand -14.5 although I expect it could still nudge out a further point.
My logic as explained in the forum thread is that in 2022 the All Blacks bounced back from defeat to Argentina with a 50 point win and that this game is being played at Fortress Eden Park where they have not lost since 1994.
The points line is 49.5 and conditions look good (Update 17 Aug 07h51 - the forecast I looked at was wrong, there has been rain all day it seems, the line is pretty stable though so I could trade out for a small loss but I will let the bet ride) .
All Black points line is currently 31.5 (8/10) and there is some 32.5 on offer.
Argentina points is 17.5.
The bet I fancy here is New Zealand over 31.5. They only got 24 in a 7 point win over England last month but 7 of the previous 8 games had all seen them sail past this line.
Any additional bets will be posted in this article and in the forum
BET: 5 units New Zealand over 31.5 points at 8/10 at WSB
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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