{"id":287012,"date":"2023-08-28T23:34:21","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T23:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=287012"},"modified":"2023-08-28T23:34:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T23:34:21","slug":"cheika-believes-pumas-are-ready-for-england-world-cup-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-union\/cheika-believes-pumas-are-ready-for-england-world-cup-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheika believes Pumas are ready for England World Cup showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Argentina prepared for England Rugby World Cup showdown, with head coach Michael Cheika claiming his side &#8216;will be ready to do their best&#8217; in opening Pool D clash<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Argentina warmed up for England pool fixture with 62-3 hammering of Spain<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Steve Borthwick&#8217;s side&#8217;s poor preparation continued with defeat to Fiji\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>England take on Argentina in World Cup opener in Marseille on September 9<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As the clock ticked into Sunday morning, Michael Cheika sat in a press conference room deep inside the bowels of the Estadio Civitas Metropolitano and put on a quite brilliant poker face.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019m not going to pretend I don\u2019t know there hasn\u2019t been a lot going on,\u2019 said the Argentina head coach, when asked by Mail Sport for his views on England\u2019s chaotic World Cup build-up.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018What I do know is England\u2019s team is full of quality players. I\u2019m sure we\u2019re going to see those quality players when it comes to the game in Marseille.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Cheika is right. England do have quality players. But under head coach Steve Borthwick, they are lurching into the World Cup on the back of awful warm-up displays, embarrassing defeats, and mindless suspensions. Argentina, by contrast, look an impressive collective force.<\/p>\n<p>There can now be no doubt it is the Pumas and not England who will be favourites when they meet a week on Saturday on the World Cup\u2019s opening weekend.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/20\/74805307-0-image-a-2_1693249230287.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Argentina head coach Michael Cheika believes his side will come up against &#8216;quality players&#8217; when they take on England in their World Cup opener on September 9<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/20\/74805347-0-image-a-3_1693249240420.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Pumas hammered Spain 62-3 in Madrid on Saturday in their final World Cup warm-up match<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/20\/74805411-0-image-a-4_1693249244834.jpg\" height=\"426\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>England meanwhile suffered their first-ever defeat to Fiji, going down 22-30 at Twickenham<\/p>\n<p>After impressively answering questions in broken Spanish following his team\u2019s final preparation game for France, it was clear Cheika much prefers his team to be in the underdog position.<\/p>\n<p>But the paucity of England\u2019s recent displays \u2014 which culminated with a first defeat by Fiji at Twickenham last Saturday \u2014means that can simply no longer be the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I feel really good about our preparation,\u2019 said former Australia boss Cheika.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We\u2019ve been low key. We\u2019ve had no distractions. We\u2019ve handled any type of adversity that\u2019s come our way pretty well. We\u2019ve been working and training hard. There is still a bit to go.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We\u2019re not exactly where we need to be right now. There\u2019s still a bit more building to go to get into the tournament but we\u2019ve got that time now before the England game. I\u2019m really happy.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>So Cheika should be. He rested key men Pablo Matera, Julian Montoya, Santiago Carreras and Emiliano Boffelli for the 62-3 hammering of Spain in Madrid \u2014 played at the home of football side Atletico and attracted 20,000 fans. It was Argentina\u2019s final run-out before England.<\/p>\n<p>Spain would have been at the World Cup too, but were disqualified after being found to have fielded an ineligible player in the qualification process.<\/p>\n<p>While the mediocrity of the Spanish side must be noted, it is clear Cheika\u2019s Pumas are red-hot behind the scrum.<\/p>\n<p>Their back-line is hugely dangerous. Comparing their expansive, attractive style of rugby -\u2014which includes the regular use of multiple dummy runners \u2014 to England\u2019s turgid kick-fest is like trying to find similarities between chalk and cheese. Argentina have pace to burn behind the scrum.<\/p>\n<p>Newcastle\u2019s Mateo Carreras and Boffelli will cause England all sorts of problems.<\/p>\n<p>Carreras came off with cramp in the nine-try hammering of Spain but will be fine to face England.<\/p>\n<p>He had earlier scored the third try, one which was a fine example of what Argentina can do in attack. They scythed through Spain like a hot knife through butter. England, beware.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/20\/74805513-0-image-a-5_1693249317124.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Argentina ran in nine tries against Spain to underline their attacking prowess<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/20\/74805515-0-image-a-6_1693249321241.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>England should already be familiar with the threat Cheika&#8217;s side pose after they won 30-29 at Twickenham last November<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I read a lot of people saying our tournament group is one of the easier ones. I don\u2019t agree,\u2019 said Cheika. \u2018At the end of the day there is only really one game of England\u2019s I\u2019m interested in and that\u2019s the one we play against them. No one is playing for points right now. We\u2019re all just warming up and getting ourselves ready. We\u2019ll be playing for points next time and everything will be different.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>While England scramble around for any sort of attacking structure, Argentina are ready to repeat their 30-29 win at Twickenham last November. They have power as well as pace too.<\/p>\n<p>Facing defending world champions South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the Rugby Championship this summer saw Argentina quickly get up to speed.<\/p>\n<p>They were too good for Eddie Jones\u2019 Wallabies in Sydney and worried the Springboks and All Blacks.<\/p>\n<p>Cheika has finalised his World Cup preparations with a gruelling training camp in Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>The only negatives are serious injuries to prop Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro and flanker Santiago Grondona.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/20\/74805523-0-image-a-7_1693249383650.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Argentina beat Australia in Sydney earlier this year and have posed problems for both South Africa and New Zealand<\/p>\n<p>\u2018What happened in the last few minutes with Santi makes us very sad,\u2019 former Leicester and now Newcastle centre Matias Moroni said after the hammering of Spain \u2018We\u2019re obviously pleased with the result but it\u2019s mixed emotions.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Still, Argentina are far ahead of England in terms of preparation.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018All the fundamentals of our game are very good,\u2019 Cheika said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We\u2019re pretty good at concentrating just on the noise that\u2019s inside our camp and making ourselves better. We\u2019ve got to make sure we\u2019re ready to do our absolute best for England.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/rugbyunion\/article-12454301\/Argentina-prepared-England-Rugby-World-Cup-showdown-head-coach-Michael-Cheika-claiming-ready-best-opening-Pool-D-clash.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Argentina prepared for England Rugby World Cup showdown, with head coach Michael Cheika claiming his side &#8216;will be ready to do their best&#8217; in opening <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-union\/cheika-believes-pumas-are-ready-for-england-world-cup-showdown\/\" title=\"Cheika believes Pumas are ready for England World Cup showdown\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cheika believes Pumas are ready for England World Cup showdown - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-union\/cheika-believes-pumas-are-ready-for-england-world-cup-showdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cheika believes Pumas are ready for England World Cup showdown - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Argentina prepared for England Rugby World Cup showdown, with head coach Michael Cheika claiming his side &#8216;will be ready to do their best&#8217; 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