Preview: Argentina v Namibia

Easy Life: It's massages all round for the high-flying Pumas

To the victors go the spoils. As France and Ireland mull over the ramifications of their do-or-die encounter in Paris, Argentina go into Saturday's clash with Namibia in Marseille knowing that a bonus-point win is all that is needed to keep the blue and white bandwagon ticking over nicely.

There's no prizes for guessing who the Pumas will be cheering on at the Stade de France on Friday night. Should the Irish beat the hosts, the South Americans (pending a win over Namibia) will qualify for the knock-out phase.

The Pumas' place as either number one or two in the group will then be decided by the result of their final game against Ireland in Paris on September 30, with France expected to beat Georgia in their game on the same day.

But if France narrowly beat Ireland, and the Irish soundly beat Argentina in the last game of the pool, the Pumas will still be on the first flight home. They don't call this the 'pool of death' for nothing!

But hypothesising over Irish bonus points won't do the Argentinians any good at all.

They have a job to do at the Stade Vélodrome, and Pumas skipper Agustín Pichot is determined that his troops deal with the Namibians as they dealt with the RWC hosts in that extravaganza of an opening night.

"We're not thinking about Namibia, only about playing for Argentina in a Rugby World Cup," said Pichot, who missed last week's win over Georgia through injury.

"Our objective is winning all the matches and our next opponent is Namibia. The motivation is not quite the same as we had against France but it needs to be.

"We don't care if they are the weakest team in the group or not. We can't go on to the pitch and win just showing them our shirts. We have to keep improving on the things we failed to do in our matches against France and Georgia."

Pichot also made it clear that slide-rules and calculators have been banned from Argentina's HQ - the Pumas are determined to decide their own fate by 'simply' winning their two remaining pool fixtures.

"Any result between France and Ireland will suit us because if we win our remaining two games we are going to finish first whatever happens," he said.

Getting out of this group alive will be hard enough, but there's no doubting the appeal of finishing top of the pile.

The team that finishes second in Pool D is SET to be drawn against the All Blacks, the tournament favourite, in the quarter-finals in Cardiff, while the top team will surely be drawn with either Scotland or Italy right here in sunny Marseille.

Forgive us if we are falling into the trap of looking too far ahead, but it's hard not to look beyond Argentina's meeting with Namibia.

The men from south-west Africa have never won a World Cup match and are still counting the cost of their bruising 87-10 defeat at the hands of a wounded France.

Given the tight schedule and the importance of their meeting with Georgia on Wednesday - yes, this Wednesday - coach Hakkies Husselman has all but thrown the game, making wholesale changes in the hope of conserving his resources for the tilt at the Lelos.

Meanwhile, Argentina, who won their sole match against Namibia 67-14 at the 2003 World Cup, are the only RWC team yet to concede a try and are on an enviable record of seven wins out of the eight international matches played in 2007.

"I think we really needed to rest some players," said Husselman, who, at 34, might be keen to pull his boots back on.

"We can't play at this level three times in a row, especially with matches so close together.

"We know the Georgia game is important for us and them as well. The reality is that if we don't rest players, they will not be ready for all four games.

"We will try to beat Argentina but they are a professional team, a tier two nation and many of their players play in France.

"We want to win it, but taking all things into consideration we hope to play good rugby and put on a showpiece for the World Cup."

Players to watch:

For Argentina: Hindú wing Hernán Senillosa was called up to the Argentina squad after a heart-scare deprived Martín Gaitán of his ticket to France. The new man will be eager to prove he deserves his spot on rugby's biggest stage. Expect the 29-year-old to do just that, for he certainly knows his way to the tryline - he scored a dozen tries in his first six Tests.

For Namibia: The need for rest has deprived Namibia of their first-choice players, but that means opportunity comes knocking for the understudies. Western Suburbs star Tertius Losper gets his first RWC start at pivot and will be looking to impress. Big things are expected of the young playmaker, and he certainly has the pedigree: his father, Sarel, is Namibia's most-capped player in history having locked down for his country in the late eighties and early nineties.

Head to head: Juan Manuel Leguizamón (Argentina) v Tinus du Plessis (Namibia): The two nations share a love of 'macho rugby', and both sides will be looking to their respective number eights for some calling-card runs during the early stages of the game. It won't be pretty!

Previous results:

2003: Argentina won 67-14 in Gosford, Australia (RWC)

Prediction: Argentina have come too far to slip on a banana skin. Expect the Pumas to clinch the bonus point before the break. Argentina by 45 points.

The teams:

Argentina: 15 Ignacio Corleto, 14 Hernán Senillosa, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Manuel Contepomi, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Felipe Contepomi, 9 Agustín Pichot (c), 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 7 Juan Martín Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Lucas Ostiglia, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Carlos Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 3 Omar Hasan, 2 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.

Replacements: 16 Mario Ledesma, 17 Juan Martín Scelzo, 18 Rimas Álvarez Kairelis, 19 Gonzalo Longo, 20 Nicolás Fernandez Miranda, 21 Federico Todeschini, 22 Federico Serra Miras.

Namibia: 15 Heini Bock, 14 Deon Mouton, 13 Du Preez Grobler, 12 Corne Powell (c), 11 Melrick Africa, 10 Tertius Losper, 9 Eugene Jantjies, 8 Tinus du Plessis, 7 Jacques Burger, 6 Michael MacKenzie, 5 Nico Esterhuize, 4 Wacca Kazombiaze, 3 Marius Visser, 2 Johannes Meyer, 1 Johnny Redelinghuys.

Replacements: 16 Hugo Horn, 17 Kees Lensing, 18 Herman Lindvelt, 19 Heino Senekal, 20 Jurie van Tonder, 21 Morne Schreuder, 22 Piet van Zyl.

Date: Saturday, September 22

Venue: Stade Vélodrome, Marseille

Kick-off: 21:00 (20:00 BST, 19:00 GMT)

Conditions: Dry, clear, light easterly breeze - max 22°C, min 16°C

Referee: Stuart Dickinson

Touch judges: Simon McDowell, Carlo Damasco

Television match official: Kelvin Deaker

Assessor: Stuart Beissel