France: On the up
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World Cup finalists France have jumped into the top three of the IRB World Rankings following their semi-final victory over Wales.
Having dropped to eighth after their shock loss to Tonga in the pool stages, France have clawed their way up the rankings courtesy of wins against England and Wales.
Les Blues become the first nation in 16 months to break the Tri-Nations stranglehold on the top three spots, with the Springboks the team that drops to fourth.
It is the first time the South Africans have slipped out of the top three since the beginning of Rugby World Cup 2007.
Wales have dropped two places to sixth, the position they occupied when they arrived in New Zealand, after missing out on a first ever Rugby World Cup Final appearance, with England climbing one spot as a result.
The second semi-final did not result in a positional change, but New Zealand have improved their rating by seven-tenths following a commanding 20-6 victory over Australia which set up a repeat of the inaugural Rugby World Cup Final in 1987 against France.
New Zealand, who would have surrendered top spot with defeat, now have a cushion of 4.85 rating points over Australia at the top of the rankings. Australia were never in danger of losing second spot, even with defeat, and still remain 1.7 points above France.
IRB World Rankings:
1(1) New Zealand 91.34
2(2) Australia 86.49
3(5) France 84.79
4(3) South Africa 84.34
5(6) England 81.58
6(4) Wales 81.10
7(7) Ireland 80.65
8(8) Argentina 80.28
9(9) Tonga 76.63
10(10) Scotland 76.20
11(11) Samoa 75.81
12(12) Italy 73.99
13(13) Canada 72.92
14(14) Georgia 71.09
15(15) Japan 70.45
16(16) Fiji 68.78
17(17) USA 65.63
18(18) Romania 63.98
19(19) Namibia 61.24
20(20) Portugal 60.67
With thanks to the IRB
Comments
Coombsy7 says...
england above wales? are the IRB drunk?
Posted 19:47 19th October 2011
jonesy2 says...
i echo the sentiments of RealRugby.
these rankings are a joke though i mean do they not take into account if a team has consistently beaten another team then just happens to lose the latest game?
rankings should be: NZ, Aus, SA/Wales, France
Posted 18:31 18th October 2011
chinstan says...
Bismo just checked and Wales were actually in 6th coming into the world cup. The rankings do make sense after all Wales, however well they played, did not beat anyone ranked above them!
Posted 18:01 18th October 2011
richardsonja says...
England rise above Wales when they havn't even played!!!!!! Are the IRB seriously trying to tell us that the team which has played the most consistent rugby (only once thrown of course once by that half french francophile A.R) in this world cup deserves to be below England. Are they sure the batteries didn't need changing when they calculated that one.
Posted 15:35 18th October 2011
Bismo says...
It's interesting how wales came in to the rwc at 4th, made the semis and have now dropped below two quarter finalists.
also scotland no longer a top 8 team?
Italy out of the top 10?
Posted 12:07 18th October 2011
hybrid187 says...
Oh yeah trinats forgot to add... NZ have beaten Aus 12 out of the last 14 times so stfu.
Posted 10:58 18th October 2011
hybrid187 says...
lol Trinats always get a kick out of your one-eyed Larry comments. Are you seriously saying NZ cant play outside NZ ?
Get real... NZ have been by far the better team over Aus the past few years, yes you beat us in HK or wherever it was after Donald Duck screwed everything up and you beat us by 5 points this 3N ?? After getting demolished in the NZ game ?
Doesnt matter if Aus fielded a weaker side against Samoa.. NZ 'C' would beat Samoa.
Posted 10:56 18th October 2011
JMehrtens says...
Why does everyone complain without being explicit what is wrong with the system (instead of the results)
Based on the RWC Wales should be higher ranked as will be reflected in the RWC results but the IRB ranking includes previous results too. They didn¿t do so well last 6 nations.
Tonga climbed in 3 months from 16th to 9th should that be more based on one single result, Canada still beat them remember.
Wales did look better than France and deserved to win but they didn¿t so they lost points and that is how it should be results matter Rugby is not a jury sport, no points for second place, attractive play or almost wins.
Yes you might argue that the loss to NZ should have cost France (more) points at the moment. And vice versa. France beating NZ is considered a similar upset as Tonga beating France which probably is not a fair reflection of strength considering past results.
The current ranking suggests that in NZ nobody except Australia has a chance of winning. But although debatable very far from the truth it isn¿t.
Yes the system has flaws, Italy who in general plays stronger opposition than Canada or Tonga should probably be above Tonga and further above Canada than on the current ranking.
Argentina will face the same after joining the trinations, being only 4 points below SA one single win at home will probably gain them less points than losing the rest will cost them. And based on current results I do not expect them to start the tournament winning more than that.
But with regards to Wales, France, England they play similar opposition and their ranking reflect previous results.
Posted 09:30 18th October 2011
hayj05 says...
@trinats - Well actually they beat the Wallabies twice in Australia last year. funny how you forgot about that :) in fact they've won 4 of the last 5 in Aus. In contrast the Wallabies haven't won in NZ since 2001.
In the last 2 years it has been 4 - 2 to NZ (3 games played in Aus, 2 in NZ, 1 in HK) not including last weeks game .They also beat South Africa 3 - 0 last year. That's when they earnt the ranking.
Why should Aus or SA overtake them when they shared the tests 1 all in 2011?
Posted 09:21 18th October 2011
RugbyLocos says...
My 2011 top-10 is as follows;
New Zealand
Australia
South Africa
Wales (poss Nº3 but edged by S.A. - france defeat means nothing)
Ireland
Samoa
France (worst and luckiest team to get to RWC final - but they are there !!!)
England (if they played france againt today they would win - poss Nº7)
Argentina
Scotland
Posted 08:57 18th October 2011
Itsasoa says...
this is about ... ranking so it has its own rules which are different of the way teams are playing rugby. Wales prove to have a better rugby than France, everyone agrees, but they did not win ... as far as they don't win, they do not raise in the ranking, isn't that logical? Either you talk about the rugby style, than Wales has a better ranking, or you talk about victories, and then it is France, where is the problem??
Posted 08:43 18th October 2011
chinstan says...
I think that everyone is forgetting that this is not an objective rankings system based on form. It is a complex mathmatical algorithm that seems almost impossible to understand.
Although Wales have had a woncderful world cup they need to ensure they now don't fall into the same trap England did last year where we had a good mini run thought we had it and then fell to pieces. Should be ok for wales as you have the benefit of a coaching team that picks on form not reputation or mates.
Posted 08:36 18th October 2011
ben7 says...
My team of the wc
1. roncero? -arg
2. du plessis -sa
3. castrogiovani -italy
4. horwill -aus
5. matfield - sa
6. burger -sa
7. warburton -wales
8. harinordoquy -france
9. phillips -wales
10. steyn? -sa
11. north -wales
12. roberts -wales
13. nonu -nz
14. ashton? -england
15. dagg -nz
Posted 06:08 18th October 2011
eseiler1 says...
So what.
Posted 02:42 18th October 2011
Hawkeye says...
Imagine being ranked 4th. The Boks must be cr@p because the ratings don't lie, especially at world cup time, so we've been told.
Posted 01:02 18th October 2011
melkdave says...
What a laugh just proves what ive said all long in RWC years ect ranking mean nothing .No way are they the 3rd best team in the world lol.just the luckiest ever in RWC history lol
Posted 22:23 17th October 2011
dylster says...
what a joke. it should be
NZ
Aussie
SA
Wales
France
England
Posted 22:04 17th October 2011
Herbman says...
No way France are the third best team in the world, even the biggest French supporter can't argue that.
Posted 21:59 17th October 2011
RealRugby says...
To all the fine South Africans out there, sorry to see you fall from the top 3.
For the graceless tossers who have been going on about conspiracies and bleating on about the SA loss to Australia - hahahahahahahahahhahahhahahahahhaha
Posted 21:37 17th October 2011
sirtidychris says...
Tonga 9 points behind France, Ireland 6 points below Australia France the 3rd best team in the world...hahahahahahahahaahahha great ranking system, does it inolve a toddler pulling names out of a hat at random lol..
Posted 21:03 17th October 2011