Argentina vs Wallabies preview

Through 9 Rugby Championship appearances Argentina is yet to record a victory, but a wounded Wallabies side offers up a tantalising opportunity for the Pumas to pounce.

After joining the SANZAR nations to form the Rugby Championship last year, the Pumas have mustered up just 1 draw and 8 losses, but currently sitting in third on the Rugby Championship ladder through virtue of a bonus point, the Argentines will have plenty of incentive to firm their position when they take on a Wallabies team who were left licking their wounds at the hands of the Springboks at Suncorp.

The Wallabies have historically had little problem dealing with Argentina with 14 wins in 19 contests, but the current Wallabies incarnation looks a far cry from the reputation their jerseys have earned and the Argentines have the mastermind of many Australian defeats in their coaching ranks in former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry. Henry has plenty of experience in exploiting the weaknesses of the Wallabies who have been dealing with all too familiar problems up front where their forwards have simply been outmatched particularly at scrum time and the domination exerted by the Springboks will have done nothing to help their confidence.

Conversely the Pumas have proven that if there is one aspect of the game that they’re ready to compete regularly with the SANZAR it is up front, Argentina for a long time have prided themselves on their scrimmaging and this spells bad news for a Australia. If the Wallabies are once again punished at scrum time and at the breakdown, the accurate boot of Nicolas Sanchez will offer them little reprieve, the Pumas could potentially hang in this game just on the back of Sanchez knocking over penalties.

The Wallabies shambolic state has reached right through to the top of their ranks with their captain, and the man widely considered the world’s greatest halfback, has been relegated to the bench in place of Nic White who will wear the Wallabies number 9 jersey for the first time. Ben Mowen will take on the captaincy in what will be just his 7^th test match after debuting a mere three months ago.

For all of their issues however, the Wallabies still possess on paper an incredibly potent backline, even if we’re yet to really see them click. Regular changes to the backline won’t help their cause and another big change comes this week with Genia being dropped, but if they can finally get the platform up front and find a way to get the likes of Folau and O’Connor some quality ball then these guys know their way to the try line.

Historically the Pumas have struggled outside of Argentina, but they pushed Australia close last year on the Gold Coast going down 23-19 on the back of a 69^th minute try to Digby Ioane, Things were also close back in Rosario where the Wallabies were able to emerge 6 point victors.

 

With Ewen McKenzie still in pursuit of his first win at the helm of the Wallabies he will no doubt have his troops primed for the perceived minnow of the competition. If they can find some semblance of balance in the battle up front then they should have the backs to get them home. It’s unlikely they will find such balance however, and while I predict they’ll do enough to scrape in with a victory, it certainly won’t be by much which makes the Argentina +10 @1.91 line with Bet 365 look very juicy, but act swiftly as the Pumas line has already taken a hammering and will only go down further heading into the weekend.