Simon Dalton presents his prediction for the Rugby Championship match.
After the first third of The Rugby Championship the standings are tangled. That is largely down to Australia and Argentina, who delivered surprise wins as the favourites were beaten. This is a Round 3 fixture. They now face one another, with the first fixture to be played in Townsville.
Australia
In our view, Australia produced a bigger shock than their upcoming opponents. Very few sides win in Johannesburg against South Africa. The refreshed squad did just that, 38:22, having finished the previous tournament bottom with only one victory. One explanation lies in selection: for the opening matches Joe Schmidt brought back several veterans from the golden generation, including fly-half James O'Connor. The 35-year-old both kicked accurately from the tee and directed play well. However, once South Africa cut out the errors, defeat followed in the second meeting (22:30).
Argentina
Argentina followed the opposite sequence. They were well beaten by New Zealand in Córdoba, 24:41, and a week later they struck back in Buenos Aires, (29:23). Across 41 meetings with New Zealand, Argentina have won only four times, and the victory two weeks ago was their first on home soil. That historic success was aided by three 10-minute sin-bins (yellow cards) for the visitors, two of them overlapping, leaving the opposition down to 13 at one stage. Last year the team pushed the battle for second place right to the wire.
Australia vs Argentina Prediction
Across 21 meetings in Australia, Argentina have celebrated victory only three times. Even so, we are siding with Australia here. The only thing is, their win won’t be easy, so we’re taking a handicap within 10 points on the away team’s loss.
