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It all comes down to this. Argentina face Japan in a winner-takes-all pool match in Nantes. The Sunday match will see one team into the Quarter Finals and the other going home. It is South America’s best vs Asia’s best. It is a RWC 2025 Semi Finalist against the RWC 2019 host.
The match was always expected to be decisive; however, with England beating both teams it is the pivotal match in Pool D. England started with a tryless 27-10 win over Argentina. With a 34-12 win over Japan and a 71-0 victory against Chile, England secured a Quarter Final before facing Samoa.
England is not a team that Argentina likely facing in World Cups. England eliminated Argentina in Tokyo at RWC 2019 but that is just the surface as Argentina has never beaten England in a RWC match.
Argentina’s game-plan was exposed by Steve Borthwick’s team in Marseille. Michael Cheika commented that everything that could go wrong for Los Pumas did indeed go wrong in the match. The 17 point defeat did not see Argentina conceding a try while Samoa and Chile managed one each.
Argentina recovered from the loss against England to play a tight style of rugby in the rain against Samoa. It was not pretty but it was effective as Argentina controlled the scorecard throughout. Rotation against Chile saw Los Pumas claiming a comprehensive bonus point win to then turn their attention to Japan.
Cheika has reverted to the England recipe to face Japan. All but one of his starting players also started in the loss in Marseille. The one change is in the second-row with Guido Petti starting alongside Tomás Lavanini with Matías Alemanno to feature as a replacement.
The formation represents twelve changes from the win over Chile. The three retained starting players are flankers Marcos Kremer, and Juan Martín González and center Lucio Cinti. Pablo Matera returns to complete the back-row while Cinti will partner Santiago Chocobares in the mid-field.
Argentina will be led by Julián Montoya from hooker. The menacing ball-carrier that is Thomas Gallo is back after having been rested against Chile. Veteran Francisco Gómez Kodela will be the starting tight head.
The backline sees Gonzalo Bertranou back after a break. He and Santiago Carreras will be the starting halves. Chocobares and Cinti combine for pace and flair in the centers while Mateo Carreras, and Emiliano Boffelli are to be the finishers on the wings. Juan Cruz Mallía will be a second play-maker from fullback.
The replacements see a big and reliable front-row with all positions well covered. Matías Alemanno and Pedro Rubiolo provide double coverage for the second-row with Rubiolo also covering flanker. The decision will enable strength from the bench to join the mobile duo of Matera and González.
Lautaro Bazán Vélez is preferred to veteran Tomás Cubelli as the replacement scrum-half. Veterans Nicolas Sánchez, and Matías Moroni cover fly half and center with Moroni also covering wing. Sánchez’ inclusion comes after Cheika did not have a replacement fly half against England.
Japan’s pool matches began and conclude with South American opponents. The Asians were given a first-half scare by Chile before completing a 42-12 bonus point win in Toulouse. Japan fell 34-12 to England in their second match and recovered to beat Samoa 28-22 in their third.
Japanese Head Coach, former All Black, Jamie Joseph has made one change to his line-up. The one alternation from the side that defeated Samoa is on the left wing with Tongan Siosaia Fifita replacing Fijian Jone Naikabula.
Joseph’s line-up for the do-or-die clash features eight players who have started in all of Japan’s matches at Rugby World Cup 2023. They are props Keita Inagaki and Ji won Gu, second-rowers Jack Cornelsen and Amato Fakatava, flanker Michael Leitch, fly half Rikiya Matsuda, inside center Ryoto Nakamura and right winger Kotaro Matsushima.
Former captain Shota Horie will join Inagaki and won Gu in the front-row. Fellow former captain Michael Leitch will be joined by another former captain in the back-row, South African Pieter Labuschagne. Kazuki Himeno will wear the captain’s armband at N8.
The Japanese back-line has speed rather than size. Naoto Saito will be the distributor from scrum-half and Rikiya Matsuda will be the play-maker at fly half. Finishers Siosaia Fifita, and Kotaro Matsushima will often come off their wings while centers Ryoto Nakamura, and Dylan Riley will look to run angles in creative back-line play. New Zealander Lomano Lemeki completes the line-up at fullback.
Captain Himeno leads the tackling statistics with a 100% success rate thus far in the tournament. He has made 31/31 making him third overall after Georgian Tornike Jalagonia (48/48) and Italian Lorenzo Cannone (33/33).
Lemeki completed two line-breaks against Samoa while Matsushima is Japan’s only player to have played every minute of their RWC 2023 campaign thus far. They are two of Japan’s three survivors from the last meeting between Argentina and Japan. Shota Horie was captain that day in Tokyo.
Argentina has six survivors from the 2016 match. Agustín Creevy was the captain and Julián Montoya the replacement hooker, Guido Petti, and Matías Alemanno locked the scrum, Nicolás Sánchez played fly half and Matías Moroni played right wing.
Argentina’s line-up then and now is 100% homegrown. Japan’s side to face Los Pumas in Nantes is 10/15 homegrown. The products of other countries rugby systems are Jack Cornelsen, Amato Takatava, Pieter Labuschagne, Siosaia Fifita, Dylan Riley and Lomano Lemeki. Meanwhile, Craig Millar and Jone Naikabula are the non-homegrown replacements.
Argentina will play the match in their alternate strip of dark blue rather than their traditional colors. Japan will play in their familiar red and white hoops.
Argentina and Japan have met previously at one Rugby World Cup. Los Pumas were 33-12 winners in the pool match in Cardiff, Wales. It saw the South Americans through to the knock-out stages of a World Cup for the first time. Los Pumas were 50-24 winners in the most recent meeting which was in 2016 in Tokyo, Japan.
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Julián Montoya (capt.), 3 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Juan Martín Gonzalez, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 13 Lucio Cinti, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 15 Juan Cruz Mallía
Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Joel Sclavi, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Pedro Rubiolo, 21 Lautaro Bazán Vélez, 22 Nicolas Sánchez, 23 Matías Moroni
JAPAN
1 Keita Inagaki, 2 Shota Horie, 3 Ji won Gu, 4 Jack Cornelsen, 5 Amato Fakatava, 6 Michael Leitch, 7 Pieter Labuschagne, 8 Kazuki Himeno (capt.), 9 Naoto Saito, 10 Rikiya Matsuda, 11 Siosaia Fifita, 12 Ryoto Nakamura, 13 Dylan Riley, 14 Kotaro Matsushima, 15 Lomano Lemeki
Replacements: 16 Atsushi Sakate, 17 Craig Millar, 18 Asaeli Ai Valu, 19 Warner Dearns, 20 Amanaki Saumaki, 21 Yutaka Nagare, 22 Ryohei Yamanaka, 23 Jone Naikabula
RUGBY WORLD CUP 2023 – ARGENTINA VS JAPAN
Date: Sunday, October 08
Kick-Off: 1pm (FR); 8am (AR)
Venue: Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes (FR)
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Paul Williams (New Zealand); James Doleman (New Zealand)
TMO: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
vs
HISTORIC RESULTS
2016-11-05 – Japan 20-54 Argentina (Tokyo, JP)
2005-04-23 – Argentina 68-36 Japan (Buenos Aires, AR)
1999-10-16 – Argentina 33-12 Japan (Cardiff, UK) *
1998-09-15 – Japan 44-29 Argentina (Tokyo, JP)
1993-05-15 – Argentina 30-27 Japan (Tucumán, AR)
* Rugby World Cup Match
