England have a foot perfect record in Rugby World Cup Pool C as they prepare to take on Argentina at the Tokyo Stadium on Saturday.
England v Argentina, Saturday 5th October, Tokyo, KO 10:00 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – Tokyo Stadium
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
England
England come into the game at the top of Pool C with a full house of 10 log points although their first 2 matches came against 2 of the outsiders, Tonga and USA. England started with a 35-3 win over Tonga and followed up with a 45-7 victory over USA. They were 42 point favourites for the Tonga game where numerous handling errors cost punters who took the minus handicap whilst the margin of victory over USA came in pretty much where the betting suggested it would. This promises to be a much stiffer test and after this England's final pool match comes against France on Saturday 12th October. There is still plenty to do to secure top spot in the pool which at the moment would probably lead to a quarter final clash with Australia.
Most bookmakers have England trading at 4/1 to win the tournament and 9/4 to reach the final.
Argentina
This pool always looked like a three horse race for the 2 qualification spots and Argentina are playing catch up after losing a crucial game to France 23-21 first time out. A second half fightback came up just short in that match after Los Pumas trailed 20-3 at half time. In their second outing Argentina beat Tonga 28-12, scoring 4 tries to pick up a bonus point and take their overall tally of log points to 6. They started that game as 27 point favourites and scored the first 28 points of the match. At half time it was 28-7 and Tonga scored the only points in the second half as Argentina lost their way.
Argentina's final pool stage match comes against USA on Wednesday of next week so they really need a win here and a bonus point victory from that game before sitting tight and hoping they have done enough to make it through.
Los Pumas are trading at around 7/2 to reach the quarter finals and they can be backed at odds of up to 150/1 to win the tournament.
Line Ups
England: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Owen Farrell (c), 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Tom Curry, 5 George Kruis, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Jamie George, 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Courtney Lawes, 20 Lewis Ludlam, 21 Willi Heinz, 22 Henry Slade, 23 Jack Nowell
Argentina: 15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Matías Moroni, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Santiago Carreras, 10 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera (c), 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti Pagadizabal, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Tomas Lezana, 21 Felipe Ezcurra, 22 Lucas Mensa, 23 Bautista Delguy
Head to Head
The teams have met 23 times with England winning 18 to Argentina's 4 and there has been 1 draw.
England have won each of the last 9 head to heads, the most recent of which was a 21-8 victory at Twickenham in November 2017
Argentina's last win over England came in Salta (24-22) in June 2009.
In RWC 2011 England won a pool stage match 13-9 in Dunedin.
In RWC 1995 England won another pool stage match 24-18 in Durban.
Betting - Handicap
England -14.5 points at 9/10
Argentina +14.5 points at 9/10
Betting on the Rugby World Cup? Claim your 1st deposit bonus of up to R2,000 here
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
The handicap has shifted slightly in England’s favour but the general consensus on last nights THE HANDICAP “Rugby Chat That Matters” is that it is fairly well set although @BrendonWessels was bullish on the English to beat the cap.
Argentina will be desperate for the win knowing that defeat would see them miss the quarter-finals, but at the same time England will be looking to win well and so make the final game against France far less pressure filled. I think Argentina will compete early, but they will struggle to break down the English defence and I like Hanrick’s strategy from last night’s show where he was looking to go low on Argentina points. This English defence is immense and I think that is what they will build this victory on.
BET: 4 Units Argentina under 15.5 points at 0.88/1 GG Gaming
Have your own say alongside our global community of rugby punters
Not a member? Register a new forum account here
Subscribe to our Youtube channel free and get notifications of all our live stream betting shows