Nobody expected England to be perfect against Australia last Saturday, but few expected for them to receive the kind of beating that they did at the hands of the Wallabies. That means that getting ready for their match against Argentina this coming Saturday with renewed vigor. While England has been hampered by injuries this season, there is still room for improvement, and they’ll be focusing on speeding up the ball to give better opportunities to their back line.
As it is, they’ve already made four changes to their starting lineup for Saturday. Veteran Duncan Bell will replace David Wilson, hooker Dylan Hartley comes in for Steve Thompson, and Paul Hodgson will be replacing Danny Care at scrum-half. Also, we’ll be watching James Haskell this Saturday, as Jordan Crane has been released back to his club.
Clearly, manager Martin Johnson understands the importance of this match, and will be looking to rally the troops for Saturday’s effort. The changes in the line-up show that he’s attempting to light a match under his players, and given the performance against Australia, the team needs some new blood in the starting lineup to bring them back up to the level they should be capable of playing at, given the talent they’ve got on the team.
Meanwhile, the Argentineans currently sit two places above England in the world rankings at sixth place. Three big players are ostensibly missing from the lineup: Juan Martín Hernández and Felipe Contepomi are sidelined, and Marcelo Bosch of Biarritz is also out of commission, at least for the match in question.
Currently, Sportingbet.com has the rugby betting odds at 3/1 in favour of Argentina with the odds for a draw stood up at 14/1. The best chances for big conversions on the First Scoring Play bet are an England try at 15/4 or an Argentina drop at 22/1.
Betfair has England at 4/1 odds at the moment, with the odds for a draw at 29/1. They have the odds for a draw at halftime with England coming through in the end at 16/1 the first score from an England try is listed at 8/5.
Clearly, if England can pull this one off, then given the odds, England fans can have more than one way to celebrate. It’s clear that they’re trying something new, and this might be the chance for this team to show what they’ve got going for them.
It was the last meeting between these two clubs that saw the dismissal of then coach, Andy Robinson, not long afterwards. Fair warning to Johnson. Just joking we think Johnson is doing a great job with re-building the England team.
