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Now that Wednesday morning’s news has had time to sink in it is time to start the long wait for the tournament. In Japan 2019 Argentina will play in the Pool of Death. In the toughest pool in history the South Americans are grouped with England, France and two remaining qualifiers.
The complexity of the draw can be seen merely by looking at past editions. England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 while France were extremely unfortunate not to do so in 2011. The French lost the final that year and also did so in both 1987 and 1999. England lost the 1991 and 2007 finals.
Argentina is yet to appear in a final but is a two-time Semi Finalist. Compare this to Pool A which has Ireland, Scotland and Japan. Of them only Scotland has made the Semi Finals, doing so in 1991 before South Africa was entitled to compete.
Argentina has been a success story in the professional era. Los Pumas famously took the World Cup by storm in 2007, beating hosts France on two occasions. In between these matches France knocked-over Ireland and New Zealand, eliminating the latter.
2007 marked the second and third time in which Argentina and France had faced at a Rugby World Cup. The first occasion was back in 1999 in Dublin, Ireland. Los Pumas had done well to make it to an historic Quarter Final. Argentina did so by eliminating Samoa and Ireland and also defeating Japan.
Four years earlier, Argentina failed to win a match. Los Pumas were narrow losers to all of England, Italy and Samoa. The fixture against England was the first between the countries. Played in South Africa, it was Argentina doing all the attacking. Los Pumas outscored England by scored two tries to zero. The boot of Rob Andrew, though, saw the Europeans home.
The teams met again in 2011. Played in Dunedin, New Zealand a low-scoring match went down to the wire. England came out 13-9 winners in a match with wayward goal-kicking. Ben Youngs crossed for game’s one and only try.
The overall record of Argentina against France in Rugby World Cups is 1-2. Against England it is 0-2.
