Rugby-England braced to face Scotland and Argentina

By Mitch Phillips

LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - England avoided the three Tri-Nations sides in the draw for the 2011 World Cup on Monday but ended up facing two of their greatest sporting rivals in the shape of Argentina and Scotland.

To add extra spice to an intriguing Pool B, the three teams will get to know each other well before the tournament as they are scheduled to meet each other three times before it kicks off.

England will play two tests in Argentina next summer before playing them again at Twickenham in November. The Pumas will also visit Scotland in a year's time before hosting them for two tests in June 2010.

England and Scotland will meet three times in the Six Nations championship before facing off in the World Cup for the first time since the 1991 semi-final at Murrayfield and the first time in pool play.

"It's going to be passionate and exciting," said England manager and 2003 World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson.

"Argentina were third last year after topping the toughest group and Scotland reached the quarter-finals when they were a tier-three team so the old days of the top two teams just playing to decide the finishing order in the group have gone."

Scotland coach Frank Hadden said: "Just because we play each other regularly doesn't make it any less exciting, we've beaten England and Argentina recently so we can go into the World Cup with some cautious optimism and we are very proud of our record of reaching every quarter-final."

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