Publications
Partners
Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town - South Africa have cemented second place behind New Zealand on the latest IRB rankings, with Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final opponents Australia still tucked in just behind them in third.
Click to BUY the new Drifta Mobile USB Decoder
Click to BUY the Rugby World Cup 2011 Game for Xbox
The top four spots on the revised ladder, issued on Monday, are all unchanged with England staying fourth despite being mostly unconvincing at the tournament thus far.
But it is all change just below that with France, rumoured to be among the less harmonious group of bunnies in the RWC hutch, taking a tumble from fifth to eighth following their upset pool defeat to Tonga, who were lying 13th at the time but have risen to ninth - above all of Scotland, Samoa and Italy.
The teams to have leapfrogged France are Ireland (now fifth), Wales (sixth) and seventh-placed Argentina.
Nevertheless, the reshuffle does not change the fact that all of the top eight IRB-ranked sides contest this weekend’s quarter-finals.
If you judged the likely “quarters” outcomes purely on latest rankings, then, New Zealand would see off Argentina in Auckland on Sunday, the Boks would pip the Aussies in Wellington on the same day, Ireland would beat Wales (also Wellington) on Saturday and England end France’s relative misery in Auckland on Saturday.
And in a semi-final scenario under those parameters, the All Blacks would eclipse the Boks and England beat Ireland to set up a northern v southern hemisphere showpiece on Sunday, October 23 with Richie McCaw then lifting the Webb Ellis Cup.
Of course some staunch Bok supporters may beg to differ ...
Cape Town - South Africa have cemented second place behind New Zealand on the latest IRB rankings, with Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final opponents Australia still tucked in just behind them in third.
Click to BUY the new Drifta Mobile USB Decoder
Click to BUY the Rugby World Cup 2011 Game for Xbox
The top four spots on the revised ladder, issued on Monday, are all unchanged with England staying fourth despite being mostly unconvincing at the tournament thus far.
But it is all change just below that with France, rumoured to be among the less harmonious group of bunnies in the RWC hutch, taking a tumble from fifth to eighth following their upset pool defeat to Tonga, who were lying 13th at the time but have risen to ninth - above all of Scotland, Samoa and Italy.
The teams to have leapfrogged France are Ireland (now fifth), Wales (sixth) and seventh-placed Argentina.
Nevertheless, the reshuffle does not change the fact that all of the top eight IRB-ranked sides contest this weekend’s quarter-finals.
If you judged the likely “quarters” outcomes purely on latest rankings, then, New Zealand would see off Argentina in Auckland on Sunday, the Boks would pip the Aussies in Wellington on the same day, Ireland would beat Wales (also Wellington) on Saturday and England end France’s relative misery in Auckland on Saturday.
And in a semi-final scenario under those parameters, the All Blacks would eclipse the Boks and England beat Ireland to set up a northern v southern hemisphere showpiece on Sunday, October 23 with Richie McCaw then lifting the Webb Ellis Cup.
Of course some staunch Bok supporters may beg to differ ...
