1
Sonny Bill predicts more misery for Wales as ranking humiliation awaits
By Ian Cameron
Former All Blacks centre Sonny Bill Williams has flagged more misery for Wales in Round 4 of the Guinness Six Nations - predicting Italy will defeat Warren Gatland's men in Rome.
If Italy beats Wales, the Azzurri will become the higher-ranked of the two teams for the first time since February 2013.
A win for Italy will see them climb three places and enter the world's top 10 for the first time in a decade. Wales will drop out of the top 10 for the first time in defeat and could fall as low as 13th if the Azzurri beat them by a big enough margin. Alternatively, a Welsh victory will result in them climbing above Japan and into ninth place.
Williams clearly believes the former will happen, writing on Twitter: "Italy to beat wales [sic]. England gets the dub with the young gun Smith having a blinder. Ireland getting that grand slam [sic]."
Indeed Ireland will retain their top spot in the World Rugby rankings if they avoid a defeat against Scotland in the final fixture of the Guinness Six Nations at Murrayfield on Sunday, even if Les Bleus have won the previous day.
If France lose to England by more than 15 points at Twickenham on Saturday, and Ireland beat Scotland by at least the same margin, their lead could be extended to 3.09 points. In such a scenario, New Zealand and South Africa would move up one place, to second and third, with Fabien Galthie's men falling to fourth.
However, if France beats Steve Borthwick's side and Ireland loses, then France will replace Ireland as the world's best team. Ireland cannot drop any lower than second place, but in a best-case scenario, Les Bleus can lead the rankings by 1.40 points.
England could trade places with Scotland if they beat Les Bleus with any margin of victory or even a draw, as long as Scotland lose at home to Ireland the following day. However, if both England and Scotland win, England will only become the higher-ranked team if their victory is by more than 15 points and Scotland fails to match that margin.
South Africa is currently ranked fourth and has more than five points than fifth-ranked Scotland. Therefore, even with a maximum of 2.26 points on offer for a home win, Scotland cannot improve on fifth place. Meanwhile, England is guaranteed to retain the sixth place regardless of the result against France.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Jake White: Ireland, Australia and Wales have the same problem
3
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner
4
Let's be real about these All Blacks
5
Latest Comments
Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
Go to comments