Preview: Preview: Argentina vs. England - prediction, team news, lineups

Argentina welcome England to the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades on Saturday evening for their third and final home match in the inaugural Nations Championship campaign.

Los Pumas beat Steve Tandy's Wales 35-21 in their previous fixture, while Steve Borthwick's men claimed an emphatic 73-8 win over Fiji at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Match preview

After a patchy run of form leading up to the tournament, winning and losing five each in their previous 10 matches, Argentina’s inconsistency has continued over the first two Nations Championship games.

Despite matching their opponents’ second-half score, Los Pumas fell to a narrow 47-38 defeat when facing Scotland in their opening bout, but responded well, scoring four tries before the break on their way to claiming a 35-21 victory against Wales in San Juan on Saturday evening.

Securing a bonus-point win has Felipe Contepomi’s men sitting pretty in third place in the Southern Hemisphere table, trailing only heavyweights South Africa and New Zealand, who they will certainly be looking to surpass with victory this weekend.

To do so, Argentina will need to stop the rut against England on home soil though, having lost their previous five matches when these sides have met in familiar territory and their most recent victory coming in a 24-22 Salta triumph over 17 years ago.

Heading into the tournament on their worst run of form since 2018, England have done a decent job of averting their Six Nations woes during the first two Nations Championship fixtures.

Despite defeat in their opening match against South Africa, Borthwick’s side were within 10 points of the back-to-back world champions until the closing stages and were rewarded for their efforts with a stunning 73-8 demolition of Fiji in Liverpool last weekend, ending a run of five consecutive losses.

Currently sat fourth above both Wales and Italy in the Northern Hemisphere table, England will certainly be looking to keep up the feel good factor against Argentina this weekend and climb a further few places heading into November’s home fixtures.

The visitors will also be enthused by their impressive recent record against Los Pumas, winning this fixture on 14 of the previous 15 occasions and claiming a 22-17 victory when the teams met in San Juan for an international friendly last year.

Argentina Nations Championship form:

Argentina form (all competitions):

England Nations Championship form:

England form (all competitions):

Team News

Argentina have made just one change to the scrum that beat Wales last weekend with Mayco Vivas replacing Boris Wenger, while Julian Montoya skippers the side from hooker.

There is a singular change to the backs too as Matias Moroni is preferred to Lucio Cinti and will be paired in the centre by Justo Piccardo, who dotted down Los Pumas' second try last Saturday.

England have named an unchanged starting lineup from their thrashing of the Flying Fijians last weekend, with Jamie George, much like his opposite man, continuing to captain the side from hooker and amongst a pack that consists of Saracens teammates George Martin and Ben Earl, who once again is deployed on the back-row.

After impressing on his return to international rugby, Henry Slade keeps his place and pairs Seb Atkinson in the midfield, while Tommy Freeman maintains his place on the wing following a string of matches wearing the 13 shirt.

Scoring tries on their international debuts at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, Benhard Janse van Rensburg and Noah Caluori will be looking to make an impact off the bench once more on Saturday.

Argentina starting lineup:

15 Santiago Carreras, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Justo Piccardo, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Gonzalo Garcia; 1 Mayco Vivas, 2 Julian Montoya, 3 Tomas Rapetti, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Matias Alemanno, 6 Santiago Grondona, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Joaquin Oviedo

Replacements:

16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Boris Wenger, 18 Pedro Delgado, 19 Efrain Elias, 20 Pablo Matera, 21 Joaquin Moro, 22 Simon Benitez, 23 Lucio Cinti.

England starting lineup:

15 Marcus Smith, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie George, 3 Joe Heyes, 4 Alex Coles, 5 George Martin, 6 Ollie Chessum, 7 Guy Pepper, 8 Ben Earl

Replacements:

16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Tom Curry, 20 Henry Pollock, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 23 Noah Caluori

We say: Argentina 21-25 England

Although their victory last weekend was undoubtedly impressive, England were certainly favourites to come out on top in Liverpool and face a much tougher task when they feature at the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades on Saturday evening.

However, after returning to winning ways we think the visitors will continue their bounce back against Argentina, claiming victory in a tight Santiago del Estero contest.