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Argentina vs New Zealand Predictions - Los Pumas to challenge mighty All Blacks

Ralph Staniforth

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Last updated: 07 Jul 2023

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Ralph Staniforth 07 Jul 2023

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Watch Argentina vs New Zealand in the Rugby Championship on Saturday (21:10 SAST)
Los Pumas beat the All Blacks in Christchurch last season
Can the Argentines upset the odds in Mendoza?

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Argentina vs New Zealand Rugby Championship

Tight contest forecast (Getty Images)

Argentina vs New Zealand Preview

This promises to be a very interesting encounter in a World Cup year. Both sides were terribly inconsistent last season so that makes this difficult to read, notwithstanding it is both teams first games of 2023.

Argentina vs New Zealand Preview
Head to Head
Argentina Form
Argentina Team News
New Zealand Form
New Zealand Team News

I feel like Los Pumas will be fired up at home and should get within the 14-point handicap.

Argentina have lost 4 of their last 5 matches.
New Zealand have won 4 of their last 6 matches against Argentina.
New Zealand have won 6 of their last 7 matches.

Head to Head

New Zealand have won four of their last six matches against Argentina. Los Pumas' two victories since 2020 has however been their only wins thus far.

The last time they met, New Zealand thrashed Argentina 53-3 in 2022. A week earlier Argentina however beat New Zealand in Christchurch.

Argentina Form

Argentina are a very strong rugby team but they do tend to blow hot and cold. It is difficult to predict how they will perform, particularly in their first match since the end of 2022.

Los Pumas finished bottom of the Rugby Championship in 2022 however they still managed two very impressive wins. They shocked the All Blacks 25-18 in Christchurch having beaten Australia 48-17 at home in their previous game.

That said, Argentina were also thrashed 41-26 and 53-3 by Australia and New Zealand, and they lost twice to South Africa. On their end-of-year tour, Los Pumas beat England by a point, lost by seven points to Wales and then suffered a 52-29 defeat to Scotland.

Argentina Team News

Argentina have selected their strongest available squad for this fixture. This is their only home match of the competition so they’d want to make an impression.

New Zealand Form

Over the last couple of decades, the word you’d associate the All Blacks with mostly is consistency. That has however not been the case since the conclusion of the 2019 World Cup under Ian Foster.

Last year was a perfect example as the coach came within one poor result of losing his job. They were hammered 26-10 in South Africa but then produced a superb performance the following week to beat the Springboks.

They then returned home to lose to Argentina, before bouncing back again, smashing Los Pumas 53-3 the following week.

It was almost the same against the Wallabies as the All Blacks won by two points and then won by 26 points the following week.

On the end-of-year tour, New Zealand beat Japan, drew with England after holding a huge lead going into the final quarter, thrashed Wales and narrowly beat Scotland.

New Zealand Team News

Ian Foster has named a strong side to face off against Argentina. Damian McKenzie starts at 10 in the biggest surprise ahead of Richie Mo’unga.

Verdict

Argentina v New Zealand

Argentina are backed to get within 14 points of the All Blacks. With the inconsistency from last year, I wouldn't bet against an upset win for the hosts.

Argentina +14

Handicap

@-109.89 - 3 Units

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Argentina Win

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@450.00 - 1 Unit

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