Argentina v New Zealand, Rugby World Cup 2023 semi-final: When is today's match and how to watch

Argentina’s reward for beating Wales is tonight’s Rugby World Cup 2023 semi-final against three-time champions New Zealand. And although the All Blacks will be overwhelming favourites, especially after their epic quarter-final victory over Ireland, Los Pumas can take confidence from recent results against Ian Foster’s men.

Argentina beat the All Blacks for the first time in Sydney in the 2020 Rugby Championship and repeated the feat last year on New Zealand soil. As such, this match is far from a given.

The winner will face either England or South Africa in the final.

When is it?

Argentina will take on the All Blacks in this semi-final tonight, Friday, October 20.

The game kicks off at 8pm UK time (9pm local time). In New Zealand, that’s 8am on Saturday morning. In Argentina, it’s 4pm on Friday afternoon.

How to watch on TV

ITV has exclusive broadcast rights to show the Rugby World Cup in the UK. The Argentina v New Zealand semi-final match will be on ITV 1.

Read Telegraph Sport’s analysis of the best TV commentators and pundits.

Radio commentary will be available only on the BBC, across Radio 5 Live, 5 Sports Extra and the BBC Sounds service. The BBC offers a “bespoke output” in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Where is it?

Stade de France, Saint Denis

Capacity: 80,023

This stadium was built for the 1998 Fifa World Cup and has been the national stadium for France ever since, as well as the home for the country’s rugby team.

New Zealand played here in the opening game of the World Cup, when they lost to France, and again for their quarter-final victory over Ireland.

Who is the referee?

Angus Gardner (Australia) will take charge. He will be joined by assistant referees Nic Berry (Australia) and Karl Dickson (England) with Ben Whitehouse (Wales) as Television Match Official.

Gardner will be refereeing Argentina v New Zealand for the fifth time this is his first World Cup knockout match as a referee. The Australian official was in the middle for Argentina’s historic 25-15 victory over the All Blacks in November 2020.

Who is in the New Zealand team?

New Zealand have recalled Mark Telea after the wing was dropped last week for disciplinary reasons.

Telea was axed for the Ireland quarter-final showdown after breaking a team curfew, with his place in the side going to Leicester Fainga’anuku who scored the opening try against Ireland.

However, head coach Ian Foster has decided to bring Telea straight back into the side to face Argentina with Fainga’anuku dropping out of the matchday 23 entirely.

Foster said regarding the decision to hand Telea a reprieve: “Mark has done his time. Like I said at the time, he made a mistake. He accepted what was happening but you don’t linger in that space. He has been our form winger through this tournament and we believe he is in a good place to play this game.

“We have really enjoyed Leicester’s game. He did a lot of what we asked him to do last week. He should be proud of that and it’s a tough selection, but it’s a chance to get Mark back on the park and I know he is excited.”

The other changes to New Zealand’s side sees Sam Whitelock come into the starting line-up in place of Brodie Retallick.

Whitelock made a crucial intervention in the latter stages against Ireland, coming off the bench to win the final turnover as New Zealand progressed. Samisoni Taukei’aho also replaces the veteran hooker Dane Coles on the bench.

New Zealand team to play Argentina
Beauden Barrett, Will Jordan, Rieko Ioane, Jordie Barrett, Mark Tele’a, Richie Mo’unga, Aaron Smith; Ardie Savea, Sam Cane (captain), Shannon Frizell, Scott Barrett, Sam Whitelock, Tyrel Lomax, Codie Taylor, Ethan de Groot.  
Replacements
Samisoni Taukei’aho, Tamaiti Williams, Fletcher Newell, Brodie Retallick, Dalton Papali’i, Finlay Christie, Damian McKenzie, Anton Lienert-Brown.

Who is in the Argentina team?

Argentina have made only one change with Gonzalo Bertranou starting in place of Tomás Cubelli at scrum-half.

Michael Cheika, the team’s head coach, discussed how his team had progressed to the semi-finals after such a disappointing start to the competition, with a defeat to England.

“It was difficult but we always kept faith and we know the work we have been doing; internally we knew we were ready, we needed to work on some details,” Cheika said. “This is how we face these difficult moments. We can face problems at any point but our confidence in our players and staff [made us believe we’d get better].”

Argentina team to play New Zealand
Juan Cruz Mallia, Emiliano Boffelli, Lucio Cinti, Santiago Chocobares, Mateo Carreras, Santiago Carreras, Gonzalo Bertranou; Facundo Isa, Marcos Kremer, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Tomas Lavanini, Guido Petti, Francisco Gómez Kodela, Julian Montoya (captain), Thomas Gallo. 
Replacements
Agustín Creevy, Joel Sclavi, Eduardo Bello, Matias Alemanno, Rodrigo Bruni, Lautaro Bazan Velez, Nicolas Sanchez, Matías Moroni.

How do I get tickets?

Tickets for this match, if they are still available, can be purchased via the official Rugby World Cup ticket portal.

Argentina’s results so far

• September 9: England 27 Argentina 10

• September 22: Argentina 19 Samoa 10

• September 30: Argentina 59 Chile 5

• October 8: Japan 27 Argentina 39

• October 14: Wales 17 Argentina 29

New Zealand’s results so far

• September 8: France 27 New Zealand 13

• September 15: New Zealand 71 Namibia 3

• September 29: New Zealand 96 Italy 17

• October 5: New Zealand 73 Uruguay 0

• October 14: Ireland 24 New Zealand 28

Best of the latest odds

• New Zealand: 1/14

• Argentina: 10/1

• Draw: 50/1

Odds correct as of October 20. Having a punt? First take a look at these Rugby World Cup free bets and betting offers.