Friday night in the “Stade de France” arena, where England and Argentina teams will go, will be greeted with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it will be an opportunity for both national teams to win a medal at the World Cup, which, looking at the success of the teams, which should rather be called failures, in the previous four years, is quite a good achievement. The third-place match, on the other hand, is a game that is always accompanied by a slight tinge of pity.
Argentina has nothing to worry and be sad about, because in the semi-finals, as they say, “without options”, with 6:44, they lost to New Zealand. “Los Pumas” had played their main games, got out of the group and also dealt with Wales in the quarter-finals. Playing in the semi-finals was already a great achievement. Especially if you take into account that four years ago, the Argentinians were not able to enter the elimination matches at all.
A loss to the All Blacks? Of course it hurts, of course there have been cases when the New Zealanders have stumbled against the Argentinians, but such an outcome is rather logical, so it is also logical for the Argentine national team to reach the bronze final.
Michael Cheika should be praised here, who took the helm of the team only in the spring of 2022, but was able to “collect” the team and come one step away from repeating its best performance ever (third place in 2007 PK).
For England, however, the mood for this match is not the best. Yes, the finalists of 2019, on the one hand, are right there and a place in the top four is not so bad if you consider that at the end of 2022, after two painful years under the leadership of Eddie Jones, the team was left without a head coach with, as they say, for all the consequences that follow. In that sense, England has played much better than expected, because even at the end of the summer, not everyone believed that the team led by Steve Borthwick would be able to get out of the subgroup.
The English, having won all the matches, got out of the group and, thanks to a lucky coincidence of circumstances, met Fiji in the quarter-finals, who, although they fought bravely, could not repeat the achievement of August. The English reached the semi-finals.
In it, DĀR faced off, which was a repeat of the 2019 final. In the course of the game, there was no replay, the match was low-scoring and tough, but it was decided, as many believe, by Ben O’Keefe’s very questionable work at the end of the match, when the New Zealand referee ignored all perceived violations by DĀR forwards in the group stage and “wrote” penalties to the English. As a result, Handré Pollard scored a victory for the “Springboks” team in the 78th minute of the match.
Interestingly, this was the second DĀR elimination match that the New Zealander officiated, and in the quarter-final match against France, he also stood out with decisions that caused the French to call O’Keefe all sorts of bad names.
Be that as it may, England and Argentina started their participation in the 2023 World Cup with a match against each other and will also end with another match between themselves.
What to expect from such a game? Matches for the third places rarely follow any logic and usually the team that “wills it more” wins them, that is, the team whose players are more motivated, physically “fresher” and less injured.
Given the previous matches and events, this match may not look good for England. First, a one-point loss against DĀR. Secondly, the second game against Argentina and in that, “Los Pumas”, although they played in the majority almost the entire match, lost. It doesn’t take a clairvoyant to tell you that they will surely want revenge in the match for third place.
Rugby World Cup, results
Year Champion2. place3. place4. place 1987 New Zealand France Wales Australia 1991 Australia England New Zealand Scotland 1995 DAR New Zealand France England 1999 Australia France DAR New Zealand 2003 England Australia New Zealand France 2007 DAR England Argentina France 2011 New Zealand France Australia Wales 2015 New ZealandAustraliaDARArgentina2019.DAREnglandNew ZealandWales2023.—-
2023-10-27 04:36:00
#Argentina #revenge #stolen #England
