LONDON – Head-to-head match preview for the Rugby World Cup 2015 Pool C match between Argentina and Namibia at Leicester City Stadium on Sunday.
Head-to-head
A 47-9 win over Tonga guaranteed New Zealand top spot in Pool C and also qualified Argentina for a quarter-final against the winners of Pool D, which will be decided when France play Ireland on Sunday at the Millennium Stadium.
Argentina and Namibia have played two previous tests, both were RWC matches and both ended in comfortable Argentina victories.
Their first test meeting was Namibia’s opening match at RWC 2003, and Argentina scored 10 tries in a 67-14 win in Gosford. It was the first time Argentina defeated a non-South American team by 50 points or more.
Four years later, it was a very similar story in Marseille at RWC 2007 when Argentina won 63-3. The 60-point victory is still Argentina’s record win over non-South American opponents.
It was also the penultimate match in what turned out to be Argentina’s only 100 per cent RWC pool record of four wins out of four.
France’s Pascal Gauzere is the match referee, his fourth RWC match in charge.
Gauzere took charge of two Argentina matches in 2014 and they were both defeats – 23-17 by Ireland home in Tucuman in June, and 28-9 by New Zealand away in Napier in September.
Argentina
Argentina have made it to the RWC quarter-finals on three previous occasions, but have only gone further once, making the semi-finals by beating Scotland 19-13 at RWC 2007.
On that occasion they lost the semi-final to South Africa, but eventually finished third after beating host country France 34-10 in the bronze play-off.
Argentina’s previous RWC 2015 pool match was a 45-16 victory over Tonga, their biggest test win against a Pacific Nations team.
Nicolas Sanchez scored a try, four penalties and four conversions for a 25-point total in that match to become the first player at RWC 2015 to pass 50 points.
Argentina made 11 personnel changes to the starting XV which played against Tonga for this match with only lock Guido Petti, blindside flanker Pablo Matera, scrum-half Martin Landajo and Matias Moroni retaining their places.
With an average age of 26 years and 46 days, and a total of 349 caps, Argentina’s starting XV is the youngest and most inexperienced they have selected at a RWC since their 32-16 pool win over Samoa in 1999.
Two of the starters, Juan Martin Hernandez and Horacio Agulla, account for 115 caps of that 349 total for this match.
It is only the third time since 2012 that Hernandez has started at fly-half. He started there in Argentina’s 37-25 win over South Africa in August and in his team’s 20-18 win over Italy in November 2014.
Namibia
Namibia are still looking for their first RWC victory after 18 attempts.
Even with a bonus-point win, Namibia would still finish bottom of Pool C.
Namibia’s previous RWC 2015 pool match provided their first ever RWC point, a bonus for losing 17-16 to Georgia – the closest match of RWC 2015 so far.
It was as close as Namibia have got to a RWC victory. Their previous closest RWC match was the 14-point defeat (35-21) by Tonga here at RWC 2015.
Namibia received three yellow cards in the match, the last of which was given to number eight Renaldo Bothma who was suspended for two weeks because of dangerous tackle.
Namibia made 11 changes to the starting line-up which lost against Georgia for this match, the most they have ever made between two RWC matches.
Only Torsten Van Jaarsveld, Tjiuee Uanivi, Theuns Kotze and Chrysander Botha retaining their spots in the starting line-up.
Captain Jacques Burger is not in the matchday 23 after being injured early in the match against Georgia.
Burger equalled Hugo Horn’s record (11) for most RWC appearances for Namibia in that match, and Johnny Redelinghuys, Tinus du Plessis and Eugene Jantjies could all join Burger and Horn on 11 if they get off the bench.
In the absence of Burger, Rohan Kitshoff will captain the team.
