England v Argentina SUNDAY 4.10pm

[pjm1]

Agree with all that, FKAS. Our record against them (1 loss in last 15!) belies their recent improvement under Contepomi. They are a lethal attacking side and also good in the air on both sides of the ball. They make more line breaks than almost everyone so our defence will need to be tight. And lots of dominant tackles.

Hopefully Slappit Backwards has sorted out our poor lineout calling and execution from last weeks first half. Arg aren’t shabby in that area.

I actually feel similar to last week - I feel we should win but very very nervous and reckon 2 out of 5 could go against us.

Both benches look awesome but our scrum replacements look far stronger so hope that gives us a platform for the last 30.

[p/d]

We will get battered

[Stom]

So Ojomah plays. Insane to think we’ve lost Dingwall, Lawrence, Freeman, Roebuck, Chessum, George to injury… did I miss someone?

[Scrumhead]

Argentina
1 Thomas Gallo
2 Julian Montoya
3 Pedro Delgado
4 Guido Petti
5 Pedro Rubiolo
6 Juan Martin Gonzalez
7 Marcos Kremer
8 Santiago Grondona
9 Simon Benitez Cruz
10 Tomas Albornoz
11 Bautista Delguy
12 Justo Piccardo
13 Matias Moroni
14 Rodrigo Isgro
15 Juan Cruz Mallia

Substitutes
16 Ignacio Ruiz
17 Boris Wenger
18 Tomas Rapetti
19 Franco Molina
20 Pablo Matera
21 Joaquin Oviedo
22 Agustin Moyano
23 Santiago Carreras

Interesting lineup and has some interesting parallels to England's. With Dingwall out, we now have a rookie 12 with a highly experienced 13, which is a similar to dynamic to the Piccardo/Molina pairing.

That's a heavyweight back row for Argentina, but I think England should have the edge in the scrum. Conversely, I think Argentina will have the better lineout.

I'm a bit concerned about the scrum, Gallo is a canny operator that's been used for impact off the bench recently (if I'm remembering correctly anyway). Short and stocky LH who will be testing AOF's technical skills, not just a big LH he'll be able to get underneath. Massive pack as expected and agreed they'll be good at lineout time.

Piccardo is a unit of a centre, pairing him with the experienced and selfless Moroni should create a nice balance. I was expecting more size though with Chocoberas alongside Piccardo and the Pumas looking to exploit what isn't the biggest England centre combo. The Pumas 6:2 bench is pretty meaty up front with their two backrow subs capable of causing us issues. If Piccardo goes down though they will be left with a backline pretty short on carrying ability though, well unless we're all going to shove a backrow into 12 in an emergency.

Recent evidence suggests otherwise given Scotland dominated them in the scrum (even more so in the second half). Gallo is more notable for his play in the loose than at the set piece. As a more compact type of specimen, he might pose a different challenge to AOF, but I wouldn’t have picked him out as a difference maker in the scrum.

Piccardo was quite good against over the summer and definitely gives them a hard carrying threat. It’ll be interesting to see the head to head with Ojomoh.

It feels like Matera and Oviedo are almost a direct response to the makeup of our bench. As much as adding impact of their own, I’m seeing that as more of an attempt to counter to the impact from our subs.

[Captainhaircut]

Really worried about today. Feels like we’re missing too many against a really hungry, dangerous side who have been together for a long stretch.

By my count, we could name the 23 below from players capped this year (not including Murley, Muir, Dombrandt, Carpenter, Northmore, Beard, Oghre who have been capped plus Obano, Isiekwe, Ilione and Quirke who have been in recent squads). Would the below beat our starting side or Argentina today?

Rodd
George
Heyes
Martin
Chessum
Hill
BCurry
CCS
JVP
FSmith
Dingwall
Lawrence
Freeman
Roebuck
Furbank

Iyogun
Langdon
Davison
Clark
Kenningham
Randall
Atkinson
Arundell

[Oakboy]

If we make it 4 /4 with that lot in reserve, there will be genuine cause for optimism. Hopefully, everyone will be fit for the 6N.