POOL B – ARGENTINA vs SCOTLAND
Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Sunday 25th Sep 8:30pm (NZT)
Head-to-head: Played 15, Argentina 10, Scotland 5
Last meeting: Scotland 13 beat Argentina 9 in Mar Del Plata 2010
Last meeting at a World Cup: Argentina 19 beat Scotland 13 in Paris (Quarter-final 2007)
Team news: Argentina have made a few tweaks to the side that started their first two matches, but skipper Felipe Contepomi is back after he was ruled out of the match against Romania with a rib injury. Although not totally 100%, Contepomi is confident he will be able to go the distance on Sunday. Scotland have named a team that is likely to play a kick and chase game. There would have been some consideration given to keeping Rory Lamont at fullback, after he played well against Georgia, but in the end Chris Paterson’s got the nod.
Form: Argentina could be sitting atop of the pool but blew their chances against England because of some terrible goal-kicking. The win over Romania got the Pumas back on track, but a loss here will put them out of the tournament. Scotland won both their first two matches but were hardly convincingly against the European Nations Cup opponents. After struggling against Romania and only avoiding an embarrassing loss in the last few minutes, Scotland had their hands full against Georgia but got home thanks to Dan Parks, who scored all 15 points in a less than memorable affair.
Prediction: Argentina have a powerful forward pack, and the ability behind the scrum to win this game and set themselves up for playoff qualification. Scotland have not shown enough to suggest they have what it takes to beat the stronger sides in this tournament, and Argentina undoubtedly qualifies as one of those. But this game will be a well fought affair in what will be testing conditions.
Argentina by 3
Teams:
Argentina: 15 Martín Rodríguez, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Felipe Contepomi (capt), 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Santiago Fernández, 9 Nicolás Vergallo, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 6 Julio Farias Cabello, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Mario Ledesma Arocena, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Martín Scelzo, 18 Mariano Galarza, 19 Genaro Fessia, 20 Alfredo Lalanne, 21 Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, 22 Juan Jose Imhoff.
Scotland: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Max Evans, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Rory Lawson (capt), 8 Kelly Brown, 7 John Barclay, 6 Al Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Nathan Hines, 19 Richie Vernon, 20 Mike Blair, 21 Dan Parks, 22 Simon Danielli.
By Alex Barlow-Smith