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A dejected Santiago Carreras and Matias Moroni of Argentina after their side was well beaten by England in their World Cup opener.
Surely Argentina can’t be any worse than they were against England to start the tournament.
They can kiss the World Cup goodbye if they stink it up again. After all, defeat against Samoa for Michael Cheika’s team will almost certainly doom them.
The Pumas will have had almost two weeks to stew on their limp defeat to England by the time kickoff rolls around on Saturday morning (NZT).
They’ll be itching to get it out of their system, knowing a win against Samoa will well and truly get their campaign back on track.
But that’s easier said than done.
Samoa, after all, are blessed with a bunch of former internationals, including All Black Steven Luatua and Wallaby Christian Leali’ifano, and have won three of the four tests played between the sides.
Jan Kruger/Getty Images
Former Wallaby Christian Leali’ifano kicks a conversion for Samoa during their Rugby World Cup win against Chile.
To be fair, the most recent was in 2005, but they also bagged wins during the 1991 and 1995 World Cups.
Argentina’s lone triumph against Samoa was during the 1999 World Cup.
Having opened their campaign by beating Chile, Samoa could at least temporarily join, or go ahead of, England atop pool D with a win.
Argentina v Samoa (pool D)
When: Saturday, 3.45am; Where: Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne; Coverage: Live on Sky Sport, live updates on Stuff from 3.30am.
Argentina: Juan Cruz Mallia, Emiliano Boffelli, Matias Moroni, Santiago Chocobares, Mateo Carreras, Santiago Carreras, Gonzalo Bertranou; Juan Martin Gonzalez, Marcos Kremer, Pablo Matera, Matias Alemanno, Guido Petti, Eduardo Bello, Julian Montoya (capt), Thomas Gallo. Reserves: Agustín Creevy, Mayco Vivas, Francisco Gómez Kodela, Pedro Rubiolo, Rodrigo Bruni, Tomas Cubelli, Nicolas Sanchez, Lucio Cinti.
Samoa: Duncan Paia’aua, Nigel Ah-Wong, Ulupano Seuteni, Tumua Manu, Ben Lam, Christian Leali’ifano, Jonathan Taumateine; Steven Luatua, Fritz Lee, Theo McFarland, Chris Vui (capt), Brian Alainu’u’ese, Paul Alo-Emile, Seilala Lam, James Lay. Reserves: Sama Malolo, Charlie Faumuina, Michael Ala’alatoa, Taleni Agaese Seu, Sa Jordan Taufua, Melani Matavao, D’Angelo Leuila, Danny Toala.
You can see the squads in full here. You can read more about pool D here.
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