Rugby World Cup Bronze Final Prediction – Argentina v England

Argentina and England will look to end their Rugby World Cup campaigns on a high when they face off in the bronze final at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Friday (9pm kick-off SA time), writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.

It’s the game no one wants to play. The consolation clash. The third and fourth place playoff between the sides who came second best in last weekend’s semi-finals.

Los Pumas failed to fire a shot and offered little resistance as they crashed to a 44-6 defeat to the All Blacks while the Red Rose suffered late heartbreak as a Handre Pollard penalty goal consigned them to a 16-15 loss.

It cruelly brings the two teams full circle as they run it back after having squared off on the opening weekend when England, despite playing most of the match with 14 men, won what turned out to be the Pool D decider 27-10 thanks to a tactical and drop goal masterclass by George Ford.

Tom Curry’s red card served as a shock to the system of an English team who’d suffered a historic 30-22 loss to Fiji in their final warm-up game at Twickenham, galvanising the embattled outfit to produce the type of character-building triumph they were able to build a solid campaign on.

That that, neither team have been good all tournament and only featured in the final four because they found themselves on the favourable side of the draw. England, who got revenge over Fiji with a hard-fought 30-24 quarter-final win, deserve credit though for their near-upset of heavily-favoured world No 1-ranked South Africa.

Steve Borthwick’s men executed a simple, yet effective game plan very well and almost shocked the world, whereas Michael Cheika’s men clocked out after their spirited efforts in the first 10 minutes were swiftly undone by the rampant New Zealanders.

Based on the absolute tactical ineptitude Argentina showed in the teams’ previous meeting and every indication that the South Americans have lost interest, a stronger, smarter and far more motivated England will bag bronze quite comfortably.