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After back-to-back defeats to New Zealand at the start of the Rugby Championship, Australia have bounced back superbly. They beat the 2019 World Cup winners and world number one in the rankings at the time, South Africa, in both fixtures over the last fortnight.
Although New Zealand will be a stretch too far to overtake in the table as they trail them by 11 points with two games to go, they can overtake the Springboks who sit one point ahead with two fixtures against the All Blacks.
Argentina have had a tough time in this years’ Rugby Championship. They sit on zero points after their opening four encounters and with a points difference of -101, it’s difficult to see how they’re going to turn their fortunes around.
They have managed stalemates in their last two meetings with the Aussies, each coming in the Tri-Nations tournament hosted by Australia in 2020, but their form has taken a serious dip since that tournament.
Indeed, they also beat the Kiwis for the first time ever that year, but with 19 points the smallest deficit they’ve managed in this edition of the competition, it looks set to be an uphill struggle.
Australia -9 Point Handicap
Australia will have the added bonus of hosting both their final two fixtures of the tournament after it was moved here following the current Covid-19 outbreak. Couple that with the current momentum they have following the return of fly-half Quade Cooper, and we can’t see any other winner than them in this encounter.
The playmaker kicked the match-winning penalty after the siren in his first game for the national side in over four years two weeks ago, while he was solid off the kicking tee again at the weekend in the second Test against Jacques Nienaber’s men.
Dave Rennie has shaken things up in the Wallabies camp and it has paid dividends. Utility back James O’Connor is waiting in the wings following his injury and it seems the side is only going to get stronger and more confident over the next couple of weeks.
The Pumas did beat their hosts on the Gold Coast back in 2018, but we just can’t see them causing them too many issues this time around.
They lack any real penetration and with just 35 points from their opening four matches, this could be yet another one-sided affair.
PREDICTION:
AUSTRALIA -9 POINT HANDICAP
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