The last action in the Rugby World Cup on Saturday sees England clash with Argentina in Marseille in a game which will have a crucial bearing on Pool D.
England v Argentina, Saturday 9th September, Marseille, KO 21:00 (South African time)
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (FFR)
Assistant Referees: Ben O'Keeffe (NZR), Pierre Brousset (FFR)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)
Weather Forecast – Marseille
England:
England played 4 warm up matches in August. A double header with Wales saw them beaten 20-9 in Cardiff and they edged the return at Twickenham 19-17. Thereafter they lost 29-10 to Ireland in Dublin and most recently they went went down 30-22 to Fiji at Twickenham.
England's only RWC title came back in 2003. In Japan 2019 they topped their pool with 3 wins and a clash with France was cancelled. They went on to beat the Wallabies in the quarter finals and the All Blacks in the semi finals before losing out to South Africa, 32-12 in the final.
England are trading at around 16.5/1 to win the tournament with BoyleSports. As well as Argentina they have Japan, Samoa and Chile for company and they are 19/20 to finish top of Pool D. Click here to open an account at BoyleSports
Argentina:
Los Pumas won 1 and lost 2 of their Rugby Championship matches in July. They they went down 22-21 to the Boks in Johannesburg, a clash with the Wallabies in Sydney delivered a 34-31 win and they were beaten 41-12 by the All Blacks in Mendoza.
Argentina's warm up matches started with a return clash with the Boks on home turf and they were beaten 24-13 and more recently they thrashed Spain 62-3.
Los Pumas' best RWC finals was a third place finish in 2007. In Japan 2019 they were also drawn in the same pool as England who beat them 39-10. They also lost to France 23-21 and although they beat Tonga and the USA they went home early.
In the RWC outright betting Argentina are trading at around 26/1 to win the tournament with BoyleSports and they are just over even money to top Pool D
Team News
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Jonny May, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Manu Tuilagi, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 George Ford, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Courtney Lawes (c), 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Jamie George, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Will Stuart, 19 George Martin, 20 Lewis Ludlam, 21 Danny Care, 22 Marcus Smith, 23 Ollie Lawrence
Argentina: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matias Alemanno, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Julian Montoya (c), 1 Thomas Gallo
Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Joel Sclavi, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Pedro Rubiolo, 21 Rodrigo Bruni, 22 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 23 Matias Moroni
Recent Head to Head
Nov 2022 Int Twickenham England 29-30 Argentina
Oct 2019 RWC Tokyo England 39-10 Argentina
Nov 2017 Int Twickenham England 21-8 Argentina
June 2017 Int Sante Fe Argentina 25-35 England
June 2017 Int San Juan Argentina 34-38 England
The Betting - Click here to open an account at BoyleSports
14h20 8 Sep
England -0.5 at 1/1
Draw 25/21
Argentina +0.5 at 1/1
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
There has been serious action on this handicap in the last few weeks. Shrewd punters could of picked up Argentina +9.5 at one stage and they are now narrow favourites (it is basically a choice game) on some books.
England have looked awful but they cannot be written off and I fancy this game to go down to the wire.
If pushed I would back Argentina to win but the play I prefer is the “Tribet” where “any other result” is 16/10 which means either team can win as long as it is not by 7 points or more.
BET: 2 units Tribet “any other result” at 16/10 at WSB
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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