The first action in Pool C of the Rugby World Cup is a crucial clash between France and Argentina at the Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday.
France v Argentina, Saturday 21st September, Tokyo, KO 09:15 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – Ajinomoto Stadium, Tokyo
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
France have never won the World Cup but they were runners up in 1987, 1999 and 2011. There is no margin for error even though this is the first match in the pool as any loser here would have a really tough task to make the knockout rounds with England still to face.
France finished fourth in this year's Six Nations with a record of 2 wins and 3 defeats with the victory's arriving at home to Scotland and away to Italy. Warm up results also included home wins over the those nations but they were edged out in a return with the Scots in Edinburgh.
In RWC 2015 France finished as runners up to Ireland in their pool. They lost to the Irish but did beat Italy, Romania and Canada. However their stay in the knockout rounds was short lived as they crashed out to the All Blacks 62-13.
France are generally a 33/1 chance to win the tournament and to top this pool they are second favourites at around 9/2. Odds of around 8/15 are quoted to make it to the knockout rounds and 3/1 to reach the semi finals. Les Bleus can also be backed at around 10/1 to reach the final.
Argentina have yet to reach a RWC final and they have been finding wins hard to come by against tier 1 nations. In the recently concluded Rugby Championship they finished with the wooden spoon after defeats at home to New Zealand (20-16) and South Africa (46-13) either side of a 16-10 loss to the Wallabies in Australia. Los Pumas also lost a subsequent warm up to South Africa in Pretoria (24-18).
In RWC 2015 Argentina came through the pool stage with 3 wins and 1 defeat, the loss coming against the All Blacks. They sprang a surprise with a comfortable win over Ireland in the quarter finals but lost a semi final to the Wallabies and also came out second best in the third place play off with the Springboks but they had a really good tournament.
Argentina are trading between 40/1 and 50/1 to be crowned champions and if you shop around you can probably find 6/1 to top this pool. To make it to the quarter finals the price is generally just shy of even money and you can get 9/2 for Los Pumas to reach the semi finals. Quotes of 16/1 are available for Argentina to make it to the final.
Line Ups
France: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Gael Fickou, 12 Virimi Vakatawa, 11 Yoann Huget, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Antoine Dupont, 8 Gregory Alldritt, 7 Charles Ollivon, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 4 Arthur Iturria, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado (captain), 1 Jefferson Poirot
Substitutes: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Demba Bamba, 19 Bernard le Roux, 20 Louis Picamoles, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Camille Lopez, 23 Thomas Ramos
Argentina: 15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Matias Moroni, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera (captain), 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Agustin Creevy, 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
Substitutes: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Tomas Lezana, 21 Felipe Ezcurra, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 23 Santiago Carreras
Head to Head
The teams have met 51 times with France winning 36 to Argentina's 14 and there has been 1 draw although over the last decade the stats are much closer with France winning 5 and Argentina winning 4.
The most recent meeting came in Lille in November 2018 and France won 28-13 (HT 11-10)
Betting – Match Result
France 17/20
Draw 22/1
Argentina 23/20
Handicap
France -1.5 points at 9/10
Argentina +1.5 points at 9/10
Quotes are an average of what was on offer from a selection of bookmakers at the time of writing and are subject to change.
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Betting Angle
France against Argentina is an interesting match as there is little doubt the loser is going to battle to make it out of the Pool Stages, for this reason I expect a tight and competitive game, but from what I have seen over the past months, France should be too good for the Argentines. Argentina were heavily supported in this game on the handicap a few months back, but a lot of those punters have changed their mind and traded out their positions to protect against a French win. I am going to keep things simple here and go for a straight win for the Six Nations team at 8/10.
BET: 5 Units France win at 8/10 at Sunbet
I will be flying during this match so am unlikely to have any further interest although the lads in the Goodforthegame Forum most certainly will.
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