The first of three Rugby World Cup matches taking place on Wednesday comes from Pool C, a clash between Argentina and the USA at the Kumagaya Rugby Stadium
Argentina v USA, Wednesday 9th October, Tokyo, KO 06:45 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – Kumagaya Rugby Stadium
Referee: Paul Williams
Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper, Brendon Pickerill
TMO: Graham Hughes
Argentina
The qualification places from Pool C are already determined with England and France already assured of finishing in the top 2. Argentina are currently third in the pool with 6 log points, Tonga are fourth with 1 and USA have yet to open their account although they have played 1 game fewer than the other teams.
Los Pumas hopes of reaching the knockout rounds ended at the weekend when they lost 39-10 to England. They were given a 13 point start by the bookmakers but they were 15-3 down by half time and also down to 14 men and there was to be no way back into the game.
In earlier results Argentina lost 23-21 to France in their opening match where a second half fightback came up just short after they had trailed 20-3 at the break. Next time out they picked up a bonus point win over Tonga (28-12). At half time it was 28-7 to Los Pumas and Tonga scored the only points of the second half as Argentina lost their way.
This will be Argentina's final action of the tournament and victory would seal a third placed finish in this pool.
USA
USA have this game and Sunday's clash with Tonga to come. Their opening game ended in a 45-7 defeat to England (19-0 half time) and their only points came at the death thanks to a converted try from Campbell.
Last time out USA lost 33-9 to France. They gave a really good account of themselves for around an hour going into the break just 12-6 down but Les Bleus scored 3 tries in the final 14 minutes to win by a more comfortable margin than the overall balance of play had suggested.
USA are regular fixtures in RWC finals but they have just 3 wins from 27 matches and in RWC 2015 they lost all 4 of their matches; to South Africa, Scotland, Japan and Samoa to finish bottom of their pool.
Line Ups
Argentina: 15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Juan Cruz Mallia, 12 Jeronimo de La Fuente, 11 Santiago Carreras, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Felipe Ezcurra, 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Pablo Matera (c), 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Santiago Medrano, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Tomas Lezana, 21 Gonzalo Martin Bertranou, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 23 Matías Moroni
USA: 15 Mike Te’o, 14 Blaine Scully (c), 13 Bryce Campbell, 12 Paul Lasike, 11 Marcel Brache, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Ruben de Haas, 8 Cam Dolan, 7 Hanco Germishuys, 6 Tony Lamborn, 5 Greg Peterson, 4 Nate Brakeley, 3 Titi Lamositele, 2 Joe Taufete’e, 1 Eric Fry
Replacements: 16 Dylan Fawsitt, 17 Olive Kilifi, 18 Paul Mullen, 19 Ben Landry, 20 Ben Pinkelman, 21 Nate Augspurger, 22 Will Hooley, 23 Martin Iosefo
Head to Head
The teams have met 8 times and Los Pumas have won all 8 of those matches.
The most recent meeting came back in 2003 and Argentina won 42-8 in Buenos Aires
Early Betting - Handicap
Argentina -20.5 points at 9/10
USA +20.5 points at 9/10
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Quotes are an average of what was on offer from a selection of bookmakers at the time of writing and are subject to change.
Betting Angle
This is an interesting match to try and get your head around betting wise. The USA play Tonga in their final game of the weekend and I thought they might be tempted to make wholesale changes for this game to target their most likely chance at victory.
They have kept changes to a minimum though and face an Argentina team that may not be in the best space mentally having failed to qualify for the last 4. Their turnaround from the England game has been very short and it is not surprising that the team has seen a number of changes.
Had the USA wrung the changes I would have called a no bet on the handicap here but I think the USA smell blood and fancy a top tier scalp. The USA to beat the handicap and a speculative play on the outright win is my call.
Bet: 5 units USA +23 at 10/11 at Sportingbet
Bet: 0.5 unit USA win at 9/1 at Betxchange
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