Steve Borthwick’s England look undercooked going into the Rugby World Cup (Picture: Getty Images)
This autumn marks the 20th anniversary of England winning the Rugby World Cup in Australia but they are light years from lifting the Webb Ellis trophy for a second time in Paris next month.
Steve Borthwick’s side are limping their way into the tenth edition of the tournament after poor performances in their warm-up internationals and their build-up has been further hindered by injuries and suspensions.
The most notable absence for the first two group games is captain Owen Farrell, the lynchpin of the team, who misses the tournament opener against Argentina on Saturday and the second match against Japan eight days later as he finishes a four-game ban for a high tackle on Wales back-row Taine Basham.
His absence against the Pumas could be costly as they are the highest-ranked team in the second half of the draw and love playing in France, finishing third when the tournament was hosted across the Channel in 2007.
England, meanwhile, are ranked eighth in the world after losing five of their last six matches.
They needed to transition after parting company with the increasingly inefficient Eddie Jones but the process has been slow and laborious – rather like their outdated style of play.
England and Argentina can be backed at evens with Betway and BetUK respectively to win at the weekend but it says bundles that the Pumas are the odds-on favourites with most firms.
Their Australian coach Michael Cheika will have Argentina well prepared and they can cause a minor surprise, if not a major upset, by winning this contest.
England should surely gather enough points from subsequent group matches against Japan, Chile and Samoa to reach the quarter-finals – where they will face one of Wales, Australia and Fiji from Group C – and the hope must be that they run into form as the tournament progresses.
Courtney Lawes and the England pack won’t tame the Pumas on Saturday (Picture Getty Images)
Even so, it’s a real stretch even for the most blinkered fan to believe England are realistic championship contenders and the best-case scenario is that they are eliminated in the semis at 6/4 with Coral, Ladbrokes and Sky Bet.
Worse case is not advancing from the pool stage, which is 9/1 with Unibet, and the most likely outcome is being knocked out in the quarters at 2/1 with BoyleSports.
Borthwick’s brigade are 16/1 with Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill to win the Rugby World Cup but don’t waste your money on that. On this occasion England doesn’t expect.
• Bath centre Ollie Lawrence is 16/1 with Betfair and Bet Victor to be England’s top tryscorer at the tournament.
• From Russia with love? Not when fellow Muscovites Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev meet in New York for a place in the US Open semi-finals. Medvedev won 6-2, 6-2 in the UAE earlier this year but Rublev took the deciding set in the ATP Tour Finals last November. Let’s use our winnings from Rublev beating Jack Draper 3-1 to back Medvedev to win by the same margin at 14/5 with Ladbrokes and Coral.
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England have little chance of winning the World Cup.