[2015 RWC] Pool C: New Zealand vs. Argentina (20/09/2015)

[TRF_heineken]

Wembley Stadium, London (20/09/2015, 16:45)
Pool C, Round 1

Referee: Wayne Barnes

Teams

New Zealand: TBA

Argentina: TBA

 

[Shaggy]

A good tough game to start the pool ... who's this Barnes guy whose reffing this one .

If New Zealand lose this one, I'll be watching with interest as to how the likes of France and Ireland react

 

[Kiwi_]

A win, but not without some difficulty probably, the Argies are tricky and can play some decent footy given the right enviroment. Wouldn't be surprised if it was a blow out either, we will be fired up.

 

[squirrel]

Agree with Shaggy it would be interesting to see the French and Irish react to a Argy victory, second string teams playing each other trying not to win.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Though one would expect tournament favorites NZ, SA and England to win (comfortably even 9 times out of 10) I wouldn't put it past their opposition to sneak home unexpectedly; a little bit of this and that and the opening round could see some big upsets.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Argentina have shown in the past few World Cups that they take the first match very seriously and go out guns blazing. I think this will be no different. I'm very interested to see how Wayne Barnes is going to officiate, especially at the Scrums, as that is one area where the Argies can dominate the All Blacks.

 

[jomjom]

Argentina have never beaten the ABs, correct? Whats the closest theyve come to it? I love watching Argentina play, looking forward to this match the most this weekend. Though normally when against the ABs Ill go for the underdog (still love you guys though), Im rooting for NZ for this one, you can probably guess why...

 

[ncurd]

Agree with Shaggy it would be interesting to see the French and Irish react to a Argy victory, second string teams playing each other trying not to win.

Absolutely will not happen face NZ in the QF or Final makes no difference. No point in conceding a mental battle in saying you are running scareds of the AB's.

 

[Kiwi_]

Agree with Shaggy it would be interesting to see the French and Irish react to a Argy victory, second string teams playing each other trying not to win.

That's bull*****, if we lost to the Argies both those sides would back themselves to beat us, the French already back themselves to beat us any game they play us. I don't think they would play to avoid us.

 

[austingtir]

Argentina has been over there for atleast two weeks longer than us which tells me they are taking this game very seriously indeed. I reckon with Barnes they reckon they've got a better chance than usual of rolling us.

 

[Kiwi_]

Argentina have never beaten the ABs, correct? Whats the closest theyve come to it? I love watching Argentina play, looking forward to this match the most this weekend. Though normally when against the ABs Ill go for the underdog (still love you guys though), Im rooting for NZ for this one, you can probably guess why...

Closest they came was a draw in 1985 21-21 in Buenos Aires and again in Buenos Aires in 2001 we were lucky to beat them with a last minute try from Scott Robinson/Razor who is now the u20's coach or something 24-20.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Argentina have never beaten the ABs, correct? Whats the closest theyve come to it? I love watching Argentina play, looking forward to this match the most this weekend. Though normally when against the ABs Ill go for the underdog (still love you guys though), Im rooting for NZ for this one, you can probably guess why...

They havn't beaten NZ yet but then again they hadn't beaten SA before a month ago either and in both cases they've gotten painfully close in the past.

Yes, there were a couple of factors to consider in Argentina beating SA but there are a couple of factors for this match that starts pushing it in Argentina's direction even if one would still consider NZ clear favorites (neutral ground, Barnes specifically as referee rather than any other NH ref, Arg would have settled in).

 

[ZeroTwo]

Are you worried about Scotland and Samoa? I could see either of those sides having a good chance if you're not careful, unlikely to win, but can certainly provide a real scare.

Not hugely relevant here? Post it in the S.A. thread.

Anyway would love to see the Argentines pull something out the bag. Can't see it happening. Suppose NZ will be putting out their strongest XV?

 

[nickdnz]

Not hugely relevant here? Post it in the S.A. thread.

Anyway would love to see the Argentines pull something out the bag. Can't see it happening. Suppose NZ will be putting out their strongest XV?

Seems to be the thoughts so far. With all due respect to Georgia, Tonga and Namibia - it's really the only game we probably run a risk of the upset, so it's most likely I think we will see our best team for this game, experiment a bit in the next two and from then on out mainly back to our best team for Tonga onward with perhaps a bit of rotation depending on performance/injuries.

Argentina winning this match would be brilliant, statistically we are only likely to lose one match in a RWC so better now than the knock out phases. In fact if we lose this one, we're certain to win the whole thing. Think about it. Maths..

 

[Kiwi_]

Strongest team will be fielded with maybe an exception here or there. Fekitoa or Money Boy might start ahead of Nonu given Nonu's sickness and it's anyone's guess who will start at 6. I think we should play our near full team in the Argentinian game then once again in the Tonga game, maybe only giving Richie and a few of the players who need a bit of protection and older guys 50-60 minutes in this game.

 

[Shaggy]

Absolutely will not happen face NZ in the QF or Final makes no difference. No point in conceding a mental battle in saying you are running scareds of the AB's.

Not really, you just need to look back to the last cup when Ireland beat Australia to see what lengths teams like France will go to get on the "favourable" side of the draw quarter final wise.

That's bull*****, if we lost to the Argies both those sides would back themselves to beat us, the French already back themselves to beat us any game they play us. I don't think they would play to avoid us.

I suspect that all of the top sides have all got the self belief to beat us in a one off match already, but you can win the RWC without having to face every team; is really such a stretch to believe that a side could or would leave a quarter final against us to someone else, and take the option to play the Pumas instead ... France, Ireland, and Italy all have better records against Argentina than us.

Argentina have never beaten the ABs, correct? Whats the closest theyve come to it? I love watching Argentina play, looking forward to this match the most this weekend. Though normally when against the ABs Ill go for the underdog (still love you guys though), Im rooting for NZ for this one, you can probably guess why...

The closest is a 21 all draw, in the mid 80's when Hugo Porta was playing (that man was class), they also almost beat the All Blacks when Jerry Collins captained the ABs to Argentina ... I think it was a late try that ceiled it for the ABs.

Stormer is right, the Pumas have beaten both Australia and South Africa in recent time, and will be very competitive ... I doubt that the ABs would take this one lightly just because they never been beaten by the Pumas before

 

[ncurd]

Not really, you just need to look back to the last cup when Ireland beat Australia to see what lengths teams like France will go to get on the "favourable" side of the draw quarter final wise.

What loose a game they would have had to loose by a huge margin to not qualify for the next round? When the other team was playing Canada and would certainly win so they would probably qualify second regardless of the outcome of the match.

Or loose to the pre tournament favourites and host nation?

Failing to see where they tried to rig it there.

 

[nickdnz]

I hate to be this guy, but...

If you hang around loose women you can catch a VD. Then you lose.

 

[ncurd]

You love it really

 

[Shaggy]

What loose a game they would have had to loose by a huge margin to not qualify for the next round? When the other team was playing Canada and would certainly win so they would probably qualify second regardless of the outcome of the match.

Or loose to the pre tournament favourites and host nation?

Failing to see where they tried to rig it there.

Well, lets just say they didn't try as hard as they could have to beat us in pool play ... they actually said that they didn't think they could beat us twice, so they were saving themselves for the final