Rugby Championship Preview – Sunday, July 21st, 2019 at 00.40 am
It’s a big year for New Zealand with two titles to defend. Not only will they be trying to keep their hands on their World Cup crown later in the year, they will first be looking to hold on to the Rugby Championship title. Considering that they have won six of the previous seven editions, they are a fair bet to do that. Argentina can positives from last season’s campaign, but do they have enough about them to pull of what would be a huge shock? Read our Argentina v New Zealand predictions for more.
Argentina v New Zealand Odds*
New Zealand 1/6
Argentina 4/1
Draw 33/1
* (betting odds taken from Unibet on July 13th, 2019 at 12:57 pm)
Can Argentina upset New Zealand?
Argentina are heavy underdogs for this opening fixture of the Rugby Championship 2019. Teams are only playing each once other instead of twice in this truncated campaign, which is to protect the teams ahead of September’s World Cup. For the first time since 2012 when the Pumas linked up with New Zealand, Australia and South Africa to create the Rugby Championship, Argentina won two matches in a campaign. Last season they picked up wins over South Africa and Australia to take that step forward. They still finished bottom of the table, but that created some history for themselves along the way. Back in 2015 when the Rugby Championship was shortened for the World Cup year, Argentina did finish third, ahead of South Africa. Facing New Zealand though feels like a bit of a thankless task at the best of times though.
Head to head
Any sign of hope for Argentina in the head to head? No. From the previous 33 meetings with New Zealand, the Pumas have lost 31 of them. The one exception was when they played out a 21-21 draw in Buenos Aires against the All Blacks in 1985. Each of Argentina’s last six defeats against New Zealand have been by a margin of more than ten points.
Will New Zealand thrash Argentina in opener?
There’s fewer sights in sport which are better than seeing the All Blacks in full flow. It was Rugby Championship title number six for them last year, which means that they have won all but one of the previous editions of the tournament. They don’t look as if they are going to lose their grip. They weren’t perfect in last year’s campaign though as they suffered a narrow loss against South Africa, which prevented them from winning six out of six. Still, no-one even came close to challenging their supremacy at the head of the table. As this fixture usually is, the biggest debate is going to be over the size of victory that New Zealand record. A New Zealand -14 is at 10/11 odds* (betting odds taken from Unibet on July 13th, 2019 at 12:57 pm).
Predictions
This should be a routine opener for New Zealand. They will likely use this as a solid warm to push forward to their somewhat stiffer challenges against the Springboks and Wallabies. There is no reason to expect anything other than another win for New Zealand and by a handsome margin as well.
