Australia vs Argentina Prediction & Betting Tips - The Rugby Championship

Prediction published on 13/07/2023, 15:20  by Devesh Jaganath | Modified on 14/07/2023 at 21:45 in Rugby Predictions

Seventh-ranked Australia will take on the world number eight Argentina in round two of the 2023 Rugby Championship on Saturday. The Wallabies will face New Zealand in their final fixture next week while the Pumas take on the Springboks. Australia got their tournament off to a very poor start as they slumped to a 43-12 defeat at Loftus Versfeld last week. Despite taking an early lead through Marika Koroibete, returning coach Eddie Jones had to watch his sides being taken apart by the sheer strength and brutality of the South Africans. They were outperformed in terms of carries and linebreaks, while they only managed 38% possession across the 80 minutes. Australia finished third in this competition last season, narrowly edging out Argentina by a single bonus point. They do have a vastly superior record than their opponents in the head-to-head standings, winning seven of their last 10 encounters. With the tournament being shortened to accommodate the World Cup, Australia need to win this match or could end up with the wooden spoon for the first time since 2020. 

Meanwhile, Argentina also suffered a hefty defeat in their last match as the All Blacks romped to a 41-12 win in Mendoza. Argentina thought that they had an early try, but it was disallowed after further review, and instead, found themselves down 31-0 at the halftime interval. They did show much more resilience in the second half, though, but despite their best efforts, they never really looked likely to get back in the contest. Nevertheless, there were a number of positives that the Pumas could have taken from that match, as they did manage to outdo the All Blacks in line breaks and carries across the gain line and were stopped agonizingly short of goal on several occasions. While their record against this opposition doesn’t inspire much confidence, they did beat Australia for the first time since 2014 in last year’s competition and will know that they are in with a real chance here again with Australia having a hard time of it during this transition phase.