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I don't follow, what has not being in the 6N or 3N got to do with the Argies missing out on the quarter finals? Are you suggesting a lack of top level rugby as a team is holding them back?
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Agreed they have a lot of talent. However being in the 3nations or 6nations doesn't guarantee a place in the quarter finals, being in a pool with only Scotland and Italy does though B)
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Aren´t you a bit confused? Not being part of top level tournaments doesn´t mean no being a top level team.
I don´t believe in stats,, but its a way to read the evoluition of the teams . An Pumas have show it pretty well
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And i'm getting called an idiot in this forum...
No offense, but if I'm an idiot, both of you have gone batsh!t fuxking LOCO. Consistently being the best in the world is all about conditioning and playing the best teams in the world week in week out. The 6N and 3N tournaments are benchmarks of such conditioning and progress.
Obviously, Argentina does not have this, so they will continually miss out on being the best for this reason. Argentinean domestic rugby is all amateur for now. Granted, most of Los Pumas play for Stade Francaise, this hardly means that, as a team, Argentina will be conditioned to become a greater tier 1 team than they are now. Right now, Argentina is Tier 1.5... they're not amazing, but they're not terrible... They're equal to most all Pacific nations now (save Tonga).
And yes, we're wrong to write off Argentina... that's why no one is writing off Argentina... They're conditioning and preparing their best rugby (as they would for a 6N or 3N match). Because they are not being underestimated (as they were in 99 and 03), THEY WILL LOSE. Doesn't mean that they won't put up a fight, but they will lose nonetheless.
In closing, being a top-level team means being admitted to a top-level tournament. Is Argentina one of the best in the world? Yes. Do the Argies deserve to be a part of the 3N? Yes.
But will the Argies leave their mark this world cup and make the quarters? NO.
Why? All the 6N and 3N teams will not underestimate them this time around. And those teams will get the better of them because they have conditioned themselves as a team against the BEST competition already.
Oh, and by the way, Ireland's backline will EAT Argentina up. I don't see Ireland losing to or winning by a small margin over Argentina this time around.
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Nice predictions!!! :bleh!:
<div class='quotemain'> It is quite staggering to read so much ignorance about Argentina on a rugby forum like this.
Ireland don't win in France. Thats cast in stone. Ireland play there every second year but struggle to ever win, or compete with France. In contrast Argentina lost against France by one point in november 2006 and won the previous match in France in November 2004. On that day they defeated France in Marseilles. No other team has eveer done this. Australia tired the following year and lost. Even the All Blacks haven't beaten France in Marseilles. Also, the week before Argentina defeated France in 2004 Australia had lost to France.
Argentina without most French based players (16 are in the World Cup squad of 30) defeated Ireland two games to nil. Argentina swapped players for the two games and still won both without most first choice players in every position. They had players such as Leonelli, Senillosa, Stortoni, Vergallo, Avramovic, Guiñazú, Henn, Bouza, Fessia, Cardinali, Cortese, Stuart, López Fleming, Juan Fernández Miranda, de Vedia and Gamborini playing these games. None of these players have been selected in the World Cup squad. Then there were other players who don't play in France, like Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, who didn't play against Ireland either.
In the two games before that, Ireland beat Argentina both times by 1 point. In 2003 it was in the World Cup after the referee didn't penalize Ireland in the closing minutes. Argentina should have been awarded a penalty which would have been kicked into points. O'Driscoll wasn't breaking the defensive line at all. There was one try scored after Argentine messed up a lineout and the ball freakeshly set up for Keith Wood to send Alan Quinlen, a flanker, away for a try.
In the other match, in November 2004, Ireland won at the very end of the game after Ronan O'Gara dropped kicked a goal. O'Driscoll and co couldn't break the defence in that game (like in the RWC) and Ireland won at the games end after scoring a grand total of zero tries. [/b]
Best wishes to Argentina - but they will be blown away by the Irish attack. I know that's not likely on past form, but I'm looking forward to Ireland taking 80% of the points from 40% of the possession. It will be a more intense version of the Ireland-Italy match from the 6N, and should be over by the end of the 3rd quarter. Arg should focus on the French match - except they'll have lost that one before they get to Ireland.
That's my prediction -
laugh all you want.[/b][/quote]
May I now, then?? :lol2tn:
