Nkululeko Mcuma

The Bronze medal of Rugby World Cup 2023 will be on offer when Argentina takes on England in the penultimate game of this World Cup, with the South Americans looking to avenge their group stage loss to the English earlier in the tournament.

Both teams will be hurting from their Semi-final defeats and will have to put that behind them if they want to finish off their respective campaigns on a high. It will be interesting to see what approach Michael Cheika and Steve Borthwick choose to take in terms in game tactics. One would think that this should an open and entertaining match given there is less pressure on both teams.

The history of this game suggests that it will be a high scoring affair and with the team selected by Steve Borthwick, we can expect England to throw the ball around come Friday evening. Marcus Smith comes back into the team at full-back with Henry Arundell lining up on the left wing. Upfront, Theo Dan and Will Stuart look to anchor the team in the front row while Sam Underhill packs down at the side of the scrum.

The Argentine coaching staff have made a few changes to the run on XV as well, with Pedro Rubiolo, Tomas Cubelli and Jeronimo de la Fuente coming in for Tomas Lavanini, Gonzalo Bertranou and Santiago Chocobares respectively. Most of the squad from the semi-final performance have been given the chance to rectify what went wrong just last week.

Michael Cheika will want his charges to send him off with a victory as they part ways after this World Cup campaign with current assistant coach and Argentine rugby legend Felipe Contepomi taking over going forward.

Prediction: England by more than 7.

Players to watch England: Marcus Smith & Ben Earl.

Players to watch Argentina: Mateo Carreras & Facundo Isa.

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