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All Blacks face prospect of further World Rugby rankings drop
By Kim Ekin
The All Blacks could fall even further down World Rugby's pecking order with a moderately heavy loss to the Springboks this weekend.
Ian Foster's side will fall to a new low of fifth – dropping below England – if they lose by more than 15 points in South Africa in Mbombela.
However, if they win on South African soil, they will supplant their hosts in third. The Boks - on the other hand - cannot improve on third place even with a victory by more than 15 points over NZ.
Jacques Nienaber's side's rating will show the same as France at 89.41 but Les Bleus rating is higher when rounding up to three decimal places will see them hold on to the second spot.
In the other Rugby Championship match between the Wallabies and Los Pumas, Argentina will be the higher ranked of the two nations if they beat Australia, climbing two places to seventh with the Wallabies falling to a new low of eighth.
Dave Rennie's side will drop to ninth if the margin of defeat is by more than 15 points. An Australian victory will not result in any positional changes for either team.
South Africa hand hooker Malcolm Marx a first start since August 2021 for what will be his 50th test, while scrum-half Faf de Klerk and winger Kurt-Lee Arendse also come into the starting line-up in place of Jaden Hendrikse and the injured Cheslin Kolbe.
Blockbusting winger Caleb Clarke will make his first appearance for the All Blacks since November 2020 as one of four personnel changes to the starting line-up with Samisoni Taukei’aho, Angus Ta'avao and Scott Barrett the other players handed a start.
Australia welcome back Quade Cooper after injury and hand flanker Jed Holloway his test debut in a match that will see captain Michael Hooper become the third most-capped Wallabies player in history.
Michael Cheika's Argentina, meanwhile, have rung the changes with only six players retained in their starting line-up from the series decider with Scotland with captain Julián Montoya, flanker Marcos Kremer, scrum-half Tomás Cubelli and winger Santiago Cordero among those returning.
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Latest Comments
Yes I was surprised at how close the pen count was - the spread between best and worst being just 2. The number of yellow cards though will surely be something the Boks will look to address
Go to commentsBriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol!
It's incredible to see the boys playing like this. Back to the form that saw them finish on top of the regular season and beat Toulon to win the challenge cup. Ibitoye and Ravouvou doing a cracking Piutau/Radradra impression.
It's abundantly clear that Borthwick and Wigglesworth need to transform the England attack and incorporate some of the Bears way. Unfortunately until the Bears are competing in Europe, the old criticisms will still be used.. we failed to fire any punches against La Rochelle and Leinster which goes to show there is still work to do but both those sides are packed full of elite players so it's not the fairest comparison to expect Bristol to compete with them. I feel Bristol are on the way up though and the best is yet to come. Tom Jordan next year is going to be obscene.
Test rugby is obviously a different beast and does Borthwick have enough time with the players to develop the level of skill the Bears plays have? Even if he wanted to? We should definitely be able to see some progress, Scotland have certainly managed it. England aren't going to start throwing the ball around like that but England's attack looks prehistoric by comparison, I hope they take some inspiration from the clarity and freedom of expression shown by the Bears (and Scotland - who keep beating us, by the way!). Bristol have the best attack in the premiership, it'd be mad for England to ignore it because it doesn't fit with the Borthwick and Wigglesworth idea of how test rugby should be played. You gotta use what is available to you. Sadly I think England will try reluctantly to incorporate some of these ideas and end up even more confused and lacking identity than ever. At the moment England have two teams, they have 14 players and Marcus Smith. Marcus sticks out as a sore thumb in a team coached to play in a manner ideologically opposed to the way he plays rugby, does the Bears factor confuse matters further? I just have no confidence in Borthers and Wiggles.
Crazy to see the Prem with more ball in play than SR!
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