The semifinals are set after Johnny Sexton and the world’s top-ranked team were beaten by a New Zealand side unrecognisable from their opening-match defeat, in one of the greatest matches in World Cup history. Argentina came from behind twice to beat Wales and reach their third Rugby World Cup semifinal earlier that morning.
Beating Ireland was an insurmountable task the last 17 times the Irish took the field, until the All Blacks halted one of the great modern unbeaten runs in Paris.
In doing so, they told the rugby world that they can never be counted out and, as World Cup history stands, they are the most successful at emerging victorious when the stakes are at their highest. Working against them in that regard are what can only be described as capitulations in 2003 and 2019, in which they lost semifinals they were favoured to win.
Argentina offer a genuine obstacle in New Zealand’s path to the final but, at eighth in the world rankings, they sit just outside the “tier 1″ of Tier 1 nations. Ian Foster’s side will not take Los Pumas as easy-beats and nor should they – reaching a World Cup semifinal is reason enough to be taken seriously.
