IRB Rugby World Cup - Bronze Final - 2007

France v Argentina 

19 October 2007 - 21:00, Parc des Princes, Paris

Rugby World Cup Bronze Finalists France and Argentina had the bitter pill of defeat to swallow last weekend.  The whole of  France had expected their team to go on and win this year's Rugby World Cup but hey that is sport.  Sometimes you win sometimes you lose.

Argentina have shown to the world not just the IRB that they should be included in either the Tri Nations or the Six Nations Cup with immediate effect and if they are not, then all rugby fans should demand it!  Argentina's match against the Springboks I felt was one match too far, what with the squad they have and the injuries sustained during the tournament.  The French on the other hand may still be licking their wounds and once again who knows which French side will turn up on Friday night at the Parc des Princes.

As a neutral supporter I hope that both teams give it one last roll of the dice and it will be a great match.  The French no doubt will want to gain back the respect of their nation and Argentina will want to cement their achievements thus far.

Having said that, do you all remember the very first match of this year's RWC? .............. Yup  France v Argentina and do you remember the score line?  Let me remind you, France 12 v 17 Argentina.  So France will be wanting revenge and I feel Argentina will be thinking we have done it before and this time the French heads might still be down.   

Just looking at the last five matches these two teams have played, they have had some might close battles.

So get the beers in and enjoy, as this match to my mind is hard to predict.  Let us wish them all the best of luck and may the best team win on the night.  

Injury notes: Argentina: Eusebio Guinazu has been called up to replace injured Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma Arocena, pending RWCL confirmation.   Ledesma Arocena suffered an adductor injury in the semi-final defeat by South Africa on Sunday and has all but ruled himself out of Friday's bronze medal final against France.  Guinazu was part of coach Marcelo Loffreda's squad in the lead-up to the tournament. The 114kg, 1.81m Agen prop has played 12 Tests for the Pumas and scored one try since his debut against Paraguay in 2003.  He was expected to rejoin his team-mates on Monday night.

France:UPDATE: David Marty replaces Damien Traille at inside centre.

1 Jean-Baptiste Poux 2 Raphaël Ibanez (c) 3 Pieter de Villiers 4 Lionel Nallet 5 Jérôme Thion 6 Yannick Nyanga 7 Thierry Dusautoir 8 Imanol Harinordoquy 9 Jean-Baptiste Elissalde 10 Frédéric Michalak 11 Christophe Dominici 12 Damien Traille 13 David Skrela 14 Aurélien Rougerie 15 Clément Poitrenaud

Replacements:  16 Sébastien Bruno 17 Nicolas Mas 18 Sébastien Chabal 19 Rémy Martin 20 Pierre Mignoni 21 Lionel Beauxis 22 Vincent Clerc

Argentina: 

1 Rodrigo Roncero 2 Alberto Vernet Basualdo 3 Omar Hasan Jalil 4 Rimas Álvarez Kairelis 5 Patricio Albacete 6 Martín Durand 7 Juan Martín Fernandez Lobbe 8 Gonzalo Longo Elía 9 Agustín Pichot (c) 10 Juan Martín Hernández 11 Horacio Agulla 12 Felipe Contepomi 13 Gonzalo Tiesi 14 Federico Martin Aramburu 15 Ignacio Corleto

Replacements: 16 Marcos Ayerza 17 Eusebio Guiñazu 18 Esteban Lozada 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamón 20 Nicolás Fernandez Miranda 21 Federico Todeschini 22 Hernán Senillosa

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