Australia: Last-gasp win sees Wales drop to third band
The rankings for the 2015 Rugby World Cup draw have been completed following Saturday's two internationals.
Wales' 14-12 loss to Australia sees the Welsh drop into the third band for Monday's draw, while Argentina move up into the second band as a result.
Wales went into their final Test of the year ranked seventh in the world, but following their defeat to Australia, both Samoa and Argentina will rise above them in the world rankings when they are also published on Monday.
Australia were already assured of a place in band one for the draw after last weekend's narrow win over Italy, but their win in Cardiff will see them close the gap to South Africa in second.
England were celebrating at Twickenham after ending the 20-match unbeaten run of world champions New Zealand with an impressive 38-21 victory.
England will remain fifth in the rankings but the gap to France above them will be slashed by nearly three points after the win over New Zealand, who remain the number one side in the world.
The IRB World Rankings have been used to rank the 12 directly qualified teams for RWC 2015 into three bands for the RWC 2015 Pool Allocation Draw with the sides ranked one to four in band one - and crucially avoiding each other until the knockout stages - those five to eight in band two and the remaining four in band three.
The bands will be confirmed on Monday:
Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France
Band 2: England, Ireland, Samoa, Argentina
Band 3: Wales, Italy, Tonga, Scotland
Provisional latest IRB World Rankings:
1 New Zealand - 90.08
2 South Africa - 86.94
3 Australia - 86.87
4 France - 85.07
5 England - 83.90
6 Ireland - 80.22
7 Samoa - 78.71
8 Argentina - 78.71
9 Wales - 78.39
10 Italy - 76.24
11 Tonga - 76.10
12 Scotland - 75.83
Comments
APV1 says...
Pool A
Aus, Eng, Wal, Oceania1, Playoff Winner
Pool B
SA, Samoa, Scot, Asia1, Americas2
Pool C
NZ, Arg, Ton, Europe1 Africa1
Pool D
Fra, Ire, Ita, Americas1, Europe2
Hardest Pool? I think A, with Aus, Eng and Wales. Buit you have to beat who's in front of you. And you have to beat the best to win the RWC. So bring it on.
Butterflies just typing this. Goodness knows how I'm going to cope..!
And they've just announced IRB Team, Coach and Player OTY:
Team - NZ (anyone surprised?)
Coach - Steve Hanson (as Will Greenwood mentioned, there's a theme developing here)
Player - Dan Carter (I ber RMcC is gutted!)
Well done them.
1018 days to go..!
Posted 15:26 03rd December 2012
luv2h8 says...
Ranking are right. Wales have lost 6 times in a row. They deserve to drop.
Posted 14:55 02nd December 2012
sirtidychris says...
I'd say the rankings are about right from the look of them, wales are unfortunate to drop out the top 2 tiers and may find themselves in a bloomin tough group, but that said in theory you could have a group containing New zealand, England and Wales !! fingers crossed for whenever the draw is
Posted 12:07 02nd December 2012
atg77 says...
Rankings are a joke. Samoa beat Wales and jump three places?Wales loose to a much higher ranked team and they fall? Makes no sense at all.
Posted 00:23 02nd December 2012
jamesliveinhope says...
@paddy91317 based on the form this autumn - there seems to be more permutations there that would be best avoided than would be preferred for everyone
Posted 22:59 01st December 2012
Uchach says...
Congratulations to the Samoan team, they fully deserve their tier 2 rank from what we've seen this november.
Let's hope they'll be able to keep this level until next RWC.
Posted 20:43 01st December 2012
paddy91317 says...
Oh great knowing irelands luck we will get a group like NZ,IRE,WRU,FIJI (with there full line up of players)
Posted 20:03 01st December 2012