SCENE-SETTER: Twickenham clash heads big weekend in world rankings battle

The Springboks confirmed their status as the world’s top rugby team in most eyes with their good win over France in Paris but this weekend could be when they take a step further by cementing themselves as the year’s No 1 ranked team in the official World Rugby Rankings.

After increasing their lead on New Zealand at the top of the table by half a point with their excellent win against France in Paris, the Boks are now in a position where their remaining big game against a team in the top echelons of the rankings, the one against Ireland on 22 November, could be rendered irrelevant to their quest for the official No 1 spot.

That will come about if England, who are the top team to have made the most upward movement on the rankings this year, topple the All Blacks in London on Saturday.

While most local eyes this weekend will be focused on Turin, where the Springboks are expected to continue on their inexorable path towards establishing global rugby hegemony, the Twickenham clash and the one in Dublin between Ireland and Australia are arguably the big games of the weekend.

Not that they are the only ones with big significance to the rankings. An Argentina win over Scotland in Edinburgh on Sunday is likely to confirm their place in the top six, which is significant in this year where there is so much focus on the draw for the next Rugby World Cup, to be staged in Australia in 2027, which will take place on 3 December.

AUSTRALIA’S FADE HAS BEEN DISAPPOINTING

The seedings will be separated by different bands, with Band 1 being made up of the top six teams, Band 2 of the next six, and so on. At the moment Argentina have a nearly three point lead on fast fading Australia in the separation between sixth and seventh place, but theoretically the Wallabies can make up that ground if they win their remaining tour games against Ireland and France and Scotland beat Argentina.

The first part of that scenario though is unlikely to happen, because although the Wallabies are expected to be boosted by the return of some big name overseas based players for the Dublin game, the most notable being La Rochelle’s giant lock Will Skelton, Joe Schmidt’s team does look like it has run out of puff after playing 15 tough test matches in the space of 20 weeks.

The Wallaby star has certainly waned since the high point of their international year, which was the shock win over the Boks in Johannesburg. After that they lost in Cape Town, were lucky to win one of their two games against the Los Pumas, were well beaten by the All Blacks in the two Bledisloe Cup games and then scraped a win over Japan before losing to England and Italy.

There was a time when the Aussies looked a shoo-in for a Band 1 seeding at their own RWC but that now looks out of their grasp as while a win in Dublin or Paris might seem possible, winning at both venues is highly unlikely.

LOS PUMAS SHOULD CEMENT BAND 1 RWC SEEDING

And anyway Argentina have grown enough to suggest they have a good chance of beating a Scotland team that will have battled to recover emotionally this week from their frustrating loss to New Zealand at the same venue last weekend.

Scotland haven’t won against the All Blacks in 120 years of trying, and in coming back from a 17 point deficit to level the scores with a quarter of the game remaining they had as good a chance of breaking the duck as they have ever had.

Argentina meanwhile flexed their muscles with a comfortable win over Wales, who were playing under new coach Steve Tandy for the first time and delivered a lot of grunt but very little in substance. Wales are currently 12th on the rankings and will slip to 13th should they lose to Eddie Jones’s Japan in Cardiff on Saturday. There is just a fraction of a point separating two teams that played to a series draw in Japan during the British winter.

The top six in the rankings is mostly an accurate reflection of the world order as it currently stands, with England closing in on Ireland in third place. There is also the familiar scenario of having the top two southern hemisphere teams, the Boks and All Blacks, being ahead of the chasing pack, with Ireland, who were in the frame for No 1 spot not that long ago, now out of the picture.

IRELAND DESPERATELY NEED CONFIDENCE AHEAD OF BOKS

With their game against the Boks now on the near horizon, Ireland will be desperately looking to hit their straps against the Wallabies so they can go into their game against the world champions with some kind of confidence after a disappointing autumn season so far. After a sharp start they ended up being well beaten by the All Blacks in Chicago and then last week their 41-10 win over Japan was far closer, and the game far more competitive, than the end margin might suggest.

Indeed, Ireland looked decidedly clunky at times, and it does appear the alarm bells are starting to ring for the former European champions, who were dethroned by France in this year’s Six Nations.

Talking of France, their current fifth place on the rankings is an anomaly, as they are regarded by most rugby followers as the top challengers to South Africa’s growing aura of invincibility, that despite their loss in Paris last week.

But France’s relatively low ranking considering they are the best northern hemisphere team can be explained by their coach Fabien Galthie’s decision to send a significantly under-strength squad to the three-test series against New Zealand in July.

ENGLAND’S MOMENT OF TRUTH

If there is any nation likely at the moment to challenge France in the next Six Nations it will be England, and their game against the All Blacks in London on Saturday is very much their moment of truth. Although England have won nine games in a row, and appear to be growing under the coaching of Steve Borthwick, a win over New Zealand will be their first against a team ahead of them on the rankings.

Given that the All Blacks don’t appear to be the team they once were, there is an argument for England to be favourites on their home ground. The motivation for the Kiwis will be another Grand Slam, meaning four wins over the Home Unions sides, as they should beat Wales in Cardiff in the last game of their tour.

However, given that the Ireland game was in Chicago, and not at the Ireland home ground of AVIVA Stadium, it is difficult to understand why the New Zealand media are considering this tour a Grand Slam quest. Surely the achievement of a Grand Slam is rooted around winning against the Home Union sides on their home fields. Chicago was a neutral venue.

Weekend Quilter Autumn International fixtures

Italy v South Africa (Turin, Saturday 2:40pm)

England v New Zealand (London, Saturday 5:10pm)

Wales v Japan (Cardiff, Saturday 7:40pm)

Ireland v Australia (Dublin, Saturday 10:10pm)

France v Fiji (Paris, Saturday 10:10pm)

Scotland v Australia (Edinburgh, Sunday 5:10pm)

Men’s World Rugby Rankings

1. South Africa 93.06 points

2. New Zealand 91.35

3. Ireland 88.85

4. England 88.06