The Wallabies will be looking to make it two wins from two starts when they host Argentina at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast on Saturday night. Join The Roar for live scores and updates from 8:00pm (AEST).
The two most improved sides of the 2014 campaign will meet each other for the 5th time in the Rugby Championship. Thus far the record reads Australia 4 Argentina 0.
It looks convincing enough, until you look at recent results.
Australia escaped with a one point win over Argentina in Perth last year and last week Argentina managed to hold the All Blacks for the first 39 minutes and had two close losses to an out of form South Africa.
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Ewen McKenzie has made some changes. Tatafu Polota-Nau comes into the starting line up and James Hanson moves to the bench. Ben McCalman replaces Wycliff Palu who is out with concussion and Adam Ashley Cooper is replaced by Peter Betham due to a neck injury sustained against South Africa last week.
From a selection point of view, I think the back row seems more balanced, however I believe Scott Fardy is perhaps lucky not to be replaced by Scott Higginbotham.
James Horwill might feel aggrieved for not making the starting XV and Rob Simmons will have hopefully worked on his discipline after giving away four penalties last weekend.
The suspension of Tomas Lavanini, Argentina’s most prolific line out winner for the campaign means he is replaced by Matias Alemanno. This could make a significant impact on the Argentinian scrum and contact area as Lavanini is a much bigger and more physical player than Alemanno, outweighing his compatriot by 15kg as well as being taller.
The only other changes in the Argentinian team is that both wings are replaced. Horacio Agulla and Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino are axed in favour of Juan Imhoff and Manuel Montero.
Argentina has shown to be the most physical pack in the Championship this season, man handling the Springboks in both their matches and being the most dominant pack in the New Zealand clash until the front rows were replaced late in the second half.
Although Argentina has shown enterprise with ball in hand they struggled to break down the New Zealand defences and it could be a similar situation as Australia showed great determination in defence against South Africa, who spend a good portion of time attacking the Australian line during the second half of their clash last week.
It must be said though that the South Africa attack was rather predictable and Argentina has shown some deft skills on attack this year.
Undoubtedly Australia is going to struggle in the scrums; I have seen little that will convince me otherwise. It is therefor imperative for them to use the advantage applied by the referee on opposition mistakes to the fullest.
They would want to avoid as many scrums as possible as Argentina will use their superior scrum to their advantage, be it to gain scrum penalties or simply to demoralise the Australian pack.
Any scrums on Australian ball must be cleared as quickly as possible as Argentina’s second shove could be detrimental to clean ball.
The line outs should be more of a contest with Tomas Lavanini suspended and there is no Victor Matfield to contend with.
Argentina will flood the breakdowns, Ben McMalman, Hooper and Fardy will need to work as a unit to negate the momentum of Argentina in the contact areas and Nick Phipps will have to dance smartly around the rucks.
There is no doubting the danger of the Australian backline, but all will be for nought if their forwards struggle to gain parity.
Argentina won’t lack endeavour out wide, hopefully for them the inclusion of Imhoff and Montero will provide them with more pace and guile out wide.
Australia will benefit from dry weather, even against the Springboks they struggled with territory last week and Argentina has shown Nicholas Sanchez is rather adept at playing territory. Wet conditions will undoubtedly favour Argentina.
One issue is not clear yet. In recent seasons this is the time when Argentina starts to fade, whether due to fatigue or simply the mental fatigue and disappointment of not being able to gain any results halfway through the tournament.
On face value this outfit looks to be a more determined, mentally stronger team and results could have gone to Argentina in Salta where a last ditch 20 minutes from South Africa denied them their first win in the tournament.
Expect an uncompromising contact area, expect the ball to be thrown about and lots of running meters. This could be a high scoring game as both teams will be desperate for a strong performance for different reasons, but ultimately this should be an entertaining game.
My tip: Australia to hold out Argentina by more than a score.
RobC
Roar Guru
His other normal daily routine would be just fine, I reckon BB But I wonder how much he works on to acquire the fullback skillset
Rugby Tragic
Guest
Nah Harry, BB is a bit disillusioned with the Boks at the moment and with them losing, he mightn't feel inspired. to watch
Sorry, what does he do for the rest of the day
"Folau your daily regime: - 50 gary owens a day - 50 (good) chip kicks - 50 clearing kicks - 150 long passes: 75 on each side" OK, that is before breakfast, what does it do for the rest of the day? ;)
gregory
Guest
The Ausies have very big guys in the pack. If they get their mindset correct they can bully teams. Just check the average weight. I think they are heavier than the Allblacks, Argies and Boks
gregory
Guest
Feeding early was the call, but on the other hand the halfback had to feed because it looked as if the Argies were having an early push.it was not like that. The Ausies were pulling back and not keeping the scrum steady
Magic Sponge
Guest
Great point BB, our scrum realises it cant scrum so collapses. If one eyed fellow Australian supporters saw thru their monacle they would realise Australian scrums always collapse against every test scrum. We sure do get more than our share of penalties for deliberately collapsing. Australians watch other test matches and you will see that scrums don't collapse like the regularity of Aus scrums. Ask yourself why? We should be penalised off the park
Magic Sponge
Guest
Dream on Phipps , Slipper, Kepu you obviously don't appreciate the boks play
Expathack
Guest
Incorrect.
Expathack
Guest
So McCaw's made far more tackles as Hooper and clearly does far more work at the breakdown PLUS has scored aa many tries. But its not clear that McCaw is the better 7? Based on what, a defenders beaten stat??? Some of you blokes are so one-eyed you should change your name to cyclops.
Mark
Guest
You're joking right?!?! Hooper is one of the few players in the Wallabies forward pack that is actually any good... That doesnt mean Hodgeson isnt good...but slagging Hooper - are you on drugs or something?
Mark
Guest
Only if the decide to play for the other 60 minutes...they were less than rubbish for the majority of this game...completely clueless... As for the Wannabies - they should have had the game all finished off by half time...the Argies should never have been in with a sniff in the last 20...when they did decide to play they made the Wannabies look ordinary...
NIck, it seems some here take the negative out of what I am saying and over react. I said the AUstralian scrum is smart, because they are, they find ways to negate stronger opponents, and it isn't a rumour it is a fact. It has been so for a long time. Technically the AUssie scrum finds ways to negate raw power. They look at scrums as the lesser of two evils, stay up and get pummeled, or go as low as possible to have the scrum go down if the pressure s too much. Look at what happened at Salta with the Boks, every time they tried to stay up they got bent, and got penalised for it. AUssie scrum rather went down which makes the referee having to guess, and they got 50% of the calls their way. Yes, you are correct, the AUssie scrum wasn't pummeled, and now you know why.
McCalman took a few line outs yesterday, plus you have Carter and Simmons. I would rather have one less line out option (Fardy) and more potency at the breakdown. You have an average of 200 breakdowns to compete, vs maybe 10 line outs on your own throw. It is a temporary solution until Pocock returns.
Rock
Guest
How exactly is that comment vitriol? I referred to the persons alias pointing out that the ludacris comment he has made (that IRB are colluding with the ref's to ensure the WB recent wins) is rubbish and actually isn't funny, hence why is his name jokerman?
Nick Off
Guest
Our #7 is a meerkat! BB I agree mostly with what you say re our scrum But you must admit in the 1st half with TPN Slipper and Kepu we weren't too shabby We got lower than Los Pumas which didn't allow them to push up which is how they've been dismantling everyone, our front row subs are not much chop and when they came on they got smashed I say rush Tongan Thor Straight in as bench THP, Alexander must go
Nick Off
Guest
We actually have the following trophies in the cabinet The Puma Trophy The Hopetoun Cup The Lansdowne Cup The James Evan Trophy TROCHEE DES BICENTENAIRES Still winnable this year The Mandela Plate The Cook cup So the only trophies we don't have are the ones the AB's have arguably the greatest team with the greatest player ever I can live with that for the time being
Jameswm
Guest
If they did, great stuff. We need more cunning in our forwards.
AS
Guest
Canberra stadium can fit 26 000 at a push. If the wallabies came to town we would fill the stadium no worries. Would be one hell of a vocal crowd too.
john
Guest
Hooper scores tries because he is out in the midfield so often. Big deal. One of those was from a nice ball from Foley (?) And the other was just a pick up and run from lazy argies. He is increasingly shying away from the contact areas and is absent at the breakdown. Hooper isn't captain material. I feel he wasnt elected so much as he was better than what else the WBs had to chose from. Pocock is a beast and stands a good chance to regain the starting spot. Give the captaicy to Genia. I have heaps of respect for him. Over all these years he is the only WB who comes close to seting the standards of excellence as the ABs and SBs. When WBs lost under Horwill all you heard was "were improving..well be ok..were fine" I always took Genia as the kind of guy who got fired up to "stop the rot" and wouldnt accept complacency or mediocrity.