Rugby Championship 2019: Predictions and fixtures for the final round

The competition might have been shortened, but the action has been full blown. The 2019 Rugby Championship will more than likely go down to the wire.

Superstition might dictate that winning the tournament in a World Cup year isn’t a good thing – no team who has lifted this trophy has also lifted the William Webb Ellis Cup in the same year.

But history is there to be rewritten – and if you dare, you can use our predictions – at your own risk (cough, we did predict the draw cough) – to impress your mates.

Australia vs New Zealand

Match notes and stats (source: World Rugby).

• This is the first of two Bledisloe Cup matches in 2019. New Zealand have held the trophy since 2003.
• A minute's silence will take place before the match as a mark of respect for former All Blacks coach and World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee Sir Brian Lochore who died last weekend.
• New Zealand and Australia will be playing their 165th test against each other. New Zealand have won 114 of those matches, Australia 43 with seven draws.
• New Zealand have won 10 of the last 11 matches between the sides – the exception being Australia’s 23-18 win in Brisbane in October 2017.
• The last match between the two sides was a 37-20 win for the All Blacks at Yokohama Stadium in Japan in October last year
• In their last outing against South Africa, the All Blacks became the first team in test rugby history to score more than 16,000 points.

Prediction: New Zealand to win by nine or more.

 Argentina vs South Africa

Match notes and stats (source: World Rugby).

• The two teams are due to meet each other again next week again in Pretoria in an RWC 2019 warm-up fixture.
• This is the 29th meeting between the teams. South Africa leads the head-to-head 24-3 with one draw.
• South Africa and Argentina have played three times before in Salta. The first test, in 2014, was won 33-31 by the Springboks, while the Pumas won the second encounter at the Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena in 2016, also by two points (26-24).
• Overall, the Springboks have played 14 tests in Argentina against the Pumas, with 11 victories, two defeats and one draw.
• Argentina will be on the hunt for back-to-back wins against South Africa for the first time after picking up a 32-19 win in their last encounter.
• Argentina’s only victory in their last 10 tests on home soil came against South Africa in August 2018.
• Tendai Mtawarira will join Rugby World Cup winner Bryan Habana on 53 appearances in the Rugby Championship to equal the Springbok caps record in the southern hemisphere competition.

Prediction: South Africa to win by six to ten points.