Scotland vs Argentina: Tight time ahead as sides seek qualification

It’s fair to say, England’s performance against Romania aside, none of the teams in Pool B have really performed at their best in the World Cup thus far.

Scotland, having been handed the easier fixtures at the start of the group, find themselves in poll position for the second qualification spot, but Andy Robinson’s side face to very tough games against Argentina and England.

Argentina narrowly lost out to England in their opening game and while they put six tries past Georgia, Santiago Phelan’s side will have to perform at a higher level if they are to beat Scotland.

Match Odds

Six times the two teams have met in the past four years and so there is plenty of form to go on.

Unfortunately for us punters, those six games have ended in three wins for each side and the odds would reflect this.

Argentina are the slight favourites at 8/11 with Scotland available at 5/4 and considering Scotland have won the last two, Scotland look to hold all the value at the moment.

At the last World Cup, Argentina took the spoils when winning 19-13, and considering the stadard of the current Scottish side, the Argentineans will be confident of making it two World Cup wins over Scotland.

History suggests it’s going to be a very tight game with no more than 12 points separating the two sides in their last 11 meetings.

With that in mind punters must look at the alternative handicap market which prices Argentina at 6/4 to win by 1-12 points and Scotland 15/8 to win by 1-12 points.

Backing both would prove profitable but for the more reckless among us, the 14/1 for no tries to be scored in the match looks a brilliant bet.

With two very even teams we’re likely to see a tactical kicking battle and, like their most recent meeting in June, punters shouldn’t expect to see more than 30 total points in the match.

Scotland’s lackluster performances against Georgia and Romania puts the advantage in Argentinas favour and we expect the Pumas to just nick this one.