With the quarter-final line-up complete and hosts England nowhere to be seen, many are predicting that the home World Cup party has fizzled out before it really burst in life.
Without a side to support, some are predicting that England’s exit will cost the UK economy over £3billion.
This time, the vitriol aimed at England rugby has put many off the rest of the home nations. No sooner had the final whistle blown against Wales, when social media was full of jubilant Welsh, Irish and Scots delighting in the poor showing of the hosts.
Mike Brown’s hideously awkward interview fanned the flames and after Australia’s magnificent dismantling job at Twickenham the schadenfreude was palpable.
No need, however, to track back your ancestry to find a Welsh granny, a French cousin or an overly friendly Irish neighbour, there is just one team for England fans (and any other neutrals) to get behind: Argentina.
First off they play fantastic running rugby. Nicolas Sanchez controls the pace of the game, zipping the ball off to his back line and conducting them into action.
Cordero and Imhoff are lightening quick, run great lines and have superb vision. Up front, they are as strong and combatant as ever but they have some players with excellent hands who are mobile and dynamic.
The Argentines scored more points than any other side and bagged 22 tries during the group stages, just three fewer than the mighty All Blacks and scored over 40 points in three of their four games.
They threw the ball around from the off and played like a team focused on enjoying their rugby and getting as many tries as they could.
Secondly they have the best fans in world rugby. Every game they have played has been a sea of blue and white, even challenging the hordes of all black fans at Wembley. But more than just having numbers, the Argentines are always in tremendous voice.
Whilst most nations will be vociferously supported during their national anthem, the support tends to fall silent with the exception of the odd round of ‘heeeeeeeave’ at opportune moments.
England’s home fans did not manage more than a few tepid renditions of ‘swing low’, whilst the atmosphere at St James’ Park for Scotland and the Millennium for Wales has been more nervous than raucous.
Anyone who has been to a comparable football match will accept that few rugby games challenge the atmosphere created in the round-ball arena, but the Argentine fans do their very best.
From the off they are right behind their team, they roar at every line-break, every offload and every try but, perhaps most tellingly, they are at their very loudest in the moments after conceding themselves – the ‘ole’s ring out and are followed by an ‘oooooooaaaaaah Argentina’.
There is the stick that every fan likes to measure them against: “It’s easy to cheer when you’re 40-0 up but what about when you’re 15-0 down.” The Argentines pass with flying colours.
This kind of support is not a quirk or a fluke, it is a product of the relationship between the team and the fans.
After the game against Namibia last Sunday at Leicester, the whole team came round and spend 30 minutes taking photos, signing autographs and just chatting with the fans who had backed them all the way.
The players recognised and engaged with their regular fans and by doing so they inspire a loyalty and develop an ethos that is not easily forgotten.
The supporters do not love the team solely because of a blind nationalism that motivates most fans, they love their side because it is a side they can be proud of on and off the pitch.
The old sporting cliché adds an extra man to the team whose support is loudest but on Sunday the Argentines will be drowned out by a tidal wave of green.
It will be a huge test for Argentina to play with 15 men instead of their customary 16 but anyone short of a side to get behind should lend their voice to the fearless Pumas and their fearsome fans.
