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Springboks return to top of world rankings
By Jon Newcombe
South Africa have moved back to the top of the world rankings after extending their winning run against Scotland to nine matches with a 32-15 victory at Murrayfield in the final Autumn Nations Series fixture of the weekend.
The Springboks had spent six weeks in second place after losing to Argentina in the penultimate round of The Rugby Championship, but Friday night's defeat for Ireland at home to the All Blacks combined with the result in Edinburgh has restored them to number one.
Rassie Erasmus' side are now on 92.46 points, with the All Blacks moving up to second on 91.22 points, while Ireland drop down to third on 90.58.
Fourth-placed France are the only team in the top 10 to remain unmoved, having not received any points for their straightforward 52-12 win over Japan at the Stade de France on Saturday evening.
On a wholly positive weekend for the southern hemisphere, Australia and Fiji joined South Africa and New Zealand in climbing the rankings, while Argentina were also rewarded for beating Italy 50-18.
The Wallabies started the weekend four places worse off than England but the gap is now down to one after their dramatic 42-37 win at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham. Now ranked seventh, England are the lowest they have been for over eight years, while Australia are up to eighth.
In another nail-biter, Fiji beat Wales for only the second time in history and have moved up to ninth. Wales, who are now on a record-equalling run of 10 straight defeats, stay 11th but are less than a point ahead of Georgia.
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Latest Comments
Not if England are going to give him a couple o appearances a year for a 200k top up, he won’t need to break into the top group. This is not the ABs in more ways than just England matching them in loose fowards.
His skill set will be unique though!
Go to commentsThe extent to which rugby pundits in NZ rely on their rose tinted spectacles really baffles me. Anton Lienert-Brown has been a good but nothing more player for a few seasons now. For an experienced player he gives a maddening amount of penalties and yellow cards too so I don’t give him any credit for all that experience.
If you had a clean slate and knew nothing about history, the guy wouldn’t be anywhere near people’s choice for 13 (or 12) if you only watch super rugby the last couple of seasons. Bailyn Sullivan / Billy Proctor / AJ Lam / Tavatavanawai to just just a few have all looked miles better than ALB.
How on earth does that end up with people saying he should be in the squad let alone starting. We have to move on from these type of players - he was never a great player and we have so many alternate options.
There is a group of mediocre players that we need to clear out, or at least try other options. We know how limited that group are, now is the time to see if some other talent can step up (the time was last year, but anyway…).
Jacobson, ALB, Papali’i, Christie, Lord, Havili, Reece. Just move on from them all and try for some upside. Thank god Cane/Perenara have finally moved on because they were in this camp too.
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