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Who will the Wallabies play in their World Cup quarter-final?
By Nick Turnbull
Post their dramatic loss to 25-29 to a deserved Welsh side in Tokyo last weekend, it is anticipated that the Wallabies will now meet the might of England as the Australians appear destined to finish runners-up of Pool D, thus putting them on a collision course with the winner of Pool C.
Yet a clear path to an English conquest of Pool C will be challenged by Argentina and France, both of whom would relish in defeating this venerable English side as each has ‘history’ with the men in white.
Argentina will be the first hurdle for the English when they square off at Tokyo Stadium this Saturday, and it is destined to be attritional rugby at its finest.
“Saturday is going to be like a war, it's like a final for us," legendary Argentinian hooker Agustin Creevey said.
"It’s going to be really hard with the forwards. I think the battle with the forwards will be the game. We need to win the scrum, win the line-out, win the maul, win the breakdown.”
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England has not lost to Argentina since 2009, which bodes well for Eddie Jones’ men, while they haven't played against each other since 2017, where Los Pumas were defeated at Twickenham 21-8.
However, since they last met, Argentina have defeated South Africa and Australia and narrowly lost to New Zealand.
This, coupled with the Jaguares finishing runners-up in Super Rugby this year is indicative that there have been encouraging results for Argentinean rugby despite their inconsistencies.
Argentina is not a team to be trifled with.
" he said.
"If England want to win the World Cup they have got five knockout games. They have got Argentina, France, quarter-final, semi-final, final and I don’t think they have got the mentality in the squad at the moment to be able to back that up five weeks in a row.”
England have not strung together four successive wins over tier one nations since 2017, those being against France, Wales, Italy and Scotland, which gives factual credibility to Thompson's assertions.
However, I differ from Thompson as I think England could still win the World Cup if they were to lose to either Argentina or France in the pool stage.
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Etzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
Go to commentsClose games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
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