Australia vs. Argentina: Preview, Live Stream, TV Info for RWC 2015 Semi-Final
New Zealand lie in wait for the winners of today’s second World Cup semi-final.
In rugby terms it seems only yesterday a clash in the World Cup between Australia and Argentina would have been a real David and Goliath affair, worthy of a billing equal to England playing Georgia or South Africa playing Japa..scratch that last one.
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The truth is it’s not a shock to see the Pumas making up the last four once again at the Rugby World Cup. They were here in 2007 and ended up finishing third, and were only knocked out last time by eventual winners New Zealand.
A look at their overall record in the last three tournaments shows us the only three sides to have beaten them in the tournament are the Springboks, the All Blacks and England.
Now, as part of the Rugby Championship, they do battle with two of these every year alongside the Wallabies. No prizes for guessing that they have drawn closer to the big three, and further away from England.
What of Australia? They won the Pool of Death, dumped out the hosts and most recently broke Scottish hearts in a deluge at Twickenham.
They have looked assured and confident, even in that disastrous moment against Scotland when that interception try looked like dumping them out.
They now have to find a way of slowing down the turbo-charged Pumas and will be relieved to have David Pocock back in their back row to try to achieve that.
Match details
Date: Sunday, October 25
Time: 4 p.m. GMT/noon ET
Venue: Twickenham
TV Info: UK, ITV1; Australia, Fox SPORTS; NZ, SkySports; South Africa, SuperSports
Live Stream: ITV Player (UK only), Universal Sports (US only)
Last five games
Australia opened their World Cup account with a solid win over Fiji and followed that up with a flaying of Uruguay. Then came their consecutive crunch matches with England and Wales.
The Red Rose Brigade wilted in the face of a pack transformed into a destructive scrummaging unit and the fleet feet of Bernard Foley. They sealed top spot in Pool A with a brutal, hard-fought win over Wales, showing new levels of resolve when they held back the red tide with 13 men.
They were hot favourites to brush Scotland aside in the quarter-finals but could not shake Vern Cotter’s men off, needing Foley’s last-gasp penalty to see them through.
Their progress to the semi-finals was in stark contrast to Los Pumas, who produced a display full of fireworks to blow Ireland out of the water in Cardiff.
Prior to that win, Daniel Hourcade’s men had bounced back from a narrow opening-match defeat to the All Blacks to turn on the style against Georgia, Tonga and Namibia. Their matches have been full of running rugby from their quick silver backs and marauding forwards allied to their traditionally strong scrum.
| September 23 | Australia 28-13 Fiji |
| September 27 | Australia 65-3 Uruguay |
| October 3 | England 13-33 Australia |
| October 10 | Australia 15-6 Wales |
| October 18 | Australia 35-34 Scotland |
| September 20 | New Zealand 26-16 Argentina |
| September 25 | Argentina 54-9 Georgia |
| October 4 | Argentina 45-16 Tonga |
| October 11 | Argentina 64-19 Namibia |
| October 18 | Ireland 20-43 Argentina |
Team lineups:
Australia have David Pocock and Israel Folau back after the pair missed the quarter-final, but prop Scott Sio ran out of time to recover from the elbow injury sustained against Scotland. He is replaced by James Slipper, who will have his hands full with Argentina loosehead Ramiro Herrera.
Argentina welcome back Marcelo Bosch after his one-week ban and are otherwise unchanged from the side that defeated the Irish.
Australia: Israel Folau, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Tevita Kuridrani, Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell, Bernard Foley, Will Genia; James Slipper, Stephen Moore (captain), Sekope Kepu, Kane Douglas, Rob Simmons, Scott Fardy, Michael Hooper, David Pocock.
Argentina: Joaquin Tuculet, Santiago Cordero, Marcelo Bosch, Juan Martin Hernandez, Juan Imhoff, Nicolas Sanchez, Martin Landajo; Marcos Ayerza, Agustin Creevy (captain), Ramiro Herrera, Guido Petti, Tomas Lavanini, Pablo Matera, Juan Fernandez Lobbe, Leonardo Senatore.
Players to watch
Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe
Argentina may have provided the pyrotechnics in this tournament so far, but the dazzling stuff has only been unboxed after the hard work of a pack led by Lobbe.
The Toulon man remains one of the world’s finest back-row forwards. His work at the breakdown will be vital against Australia, whose duo of Michael Hooper and David Pocock can be so destructive in that area.
The Pumas' plan to go wide often and quickly is predicated on lighting-fast ball from the breakdown, which Lobbe must play a key role in securing.
In addition to that, when he does find himself in the open spaces, his hands are as good as any centre, as he showed with the missed pass off his laces that sparked the move for Argentina’s first try against Ireland.
Bernard Foley
Foley has been Australia’s match-winner in the last three games, slicing and dicing the English with a brace of tries, out-kicking Dan Biggar to cancel out Wales and holding his nerve in the driving rain to sneak past the Scots.
Australia possess the smarts to do what Ireland couldn’t and rein Argentina in, but it’s what they do with Foley defensively that they must fathom.
He has been shifted around the park by Michael Cheika to shield him from the heavy hitters, but should he be placed out wide against Argentina, he may well be the man having to deal with the way they like to overload one side or the other with their pace men.
Prediction: Australia by 5
Odds
Australia 4/9
Argentina 53/21
Draw 28/1
Via Oddschecker
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