Argentina capable of staying within 10 points of Australia in the Rugby Championship betting

Recommended bet: Argentina (+10 points handicap) @ 1/1 (2.00) with bet365

After a six-match winless streak dating back to the 2015 Rugby World Cup final, Australia finally came good with last weekend’s 23-17 victory over South Africa in Brisbane.

It was hard work at Lang Park in difficult conditions though, with Australia 14-3 adrift after 18-minutes before recovering to win for the first time since beating Argentina in the aforementioned World Cup at the semi-final stage.

The Wallabies will now look to secure another morale-boosting victory over Argentina at the NIB Stadium in Perth on Saturday evening to add to the belief that they have now turned a corner.

The Pumas go into the game on the back of a 57-22 loss to New Zealand in Hamilton at the weekend, although the scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story.  The All Blacks held a narrow 24-22 lead on 50-minutes, but the Pumas were perhaps naïve in their tactics as the game wore on and the New Zealanders greater depth in strength from the bench eventually saw them home with something to spare.

Argentina are clearly not a team to take lightly in International rugby these days, but they will have travelled across four time zones for this match and there have to be doubts as to how much they have left in the tank after such a spirited performance against the mighty All Blacks for so much of the match on Saturday.

Losing to the All Blacks was certainly no disgrace for Argentina, given that they are clearly a level above the competition at present.  Australia are only too aware of that having suffered two heavy defeats themselves.  The Pumas only lost 30-23 in South Africa last month, before winning the return 26-24 on home soil and those scores might be a better indicator of their abilities.  

Taking into account last weekend’s matches, it might be worth having a small interest on the Half-time/ Full-time double result here, with the Pumas to be leading at half-time, but the Wallabies turning things around against a possibly tiring Argentinean team after the interval being available at a tempting 6/1 with BetVictor.

However, the safer bet may be to back the Argentineans to stay within 10 points of Australia on the Handicap.