Ardie Savea: 'You've got to beat number one to be number one'
While the All Blacks may have taken the number one spot on the World Rugby rankings following their victory over the Pumas and the Springboks’ second loss to the Wallabies in as many weeks, Ardie Savea and Ian Foster aren’t getting ahead of themselves.
In a somewhat curious set of circumstances, World Rugby have seemingly decided to assign home advantage equally throughout the Rugby Championship for the purpose of rankings calculations, on a week by week basis, despite the fact that the majority of the games are being played in Australia.
That means the Springboks were treated as the home side in last weekend’s loss to the Wallabies, even though the game was played in front of a raucous Australian crowd.
As such, the cumulative effect of their losses has seen them drop below New Zealand in the rankings, after factoring in the All Blacks two wins (‘home’ and ‘away’) over the Pumas.
While there’s been considerable focus on the world rankings in the lead up to the game – and there will also inevitably been plenty of focus after the fact – the rankings are something that evidently concern fans and the media more than the teams themselves.
Further still, All Blacks captain Savea has suggested that until his side take on the Springboks in Townsville next weekend, it’s impossible to make a claim about the world’s best team at present.
Savea commented after the All Blacks’ win over the Pumas that the number one ranking being on the line didn’t factor into their performance by any stretch of the imagination.
“I wasn’t even thinking about that,” he said. “It got mentioned after in the post-match interview but my mindset is you’ve got to beat number one to be number one. It doesn’t play into anything [for] me. We’ll enjoy tonight and refocus next week.”
Head coach Ian Foster backed up his captain’s words, suggesting that the All Blacks certainly don’t need any further motivation to get up against the Springboks, regardless of world rankings.
“I’m at the same level as Ardie,” he said. “We’re two very simple people, definitely not mathematicians.
“To be fair, it’s not in our mind at all. I’m not trying to say that to downplay it but we’re about to play South Africa next week. We’ll get excited about that and we’re more interested in winning the test match than where we sit and if we focus too much on the other thing, then we’ll get tripped up and we won’t be there for very long so that doesn’t interest us either.”
Two players who have had few opportunities to stake their claims this year were exemplary in the All Blacks' win over the Pumas. Will they force a loose forward rethink? #AllBlacks #ARGvNZLhttps://t.co/lyCmPfi0y0
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 18, 2021
“Trust me, we love playing test matches but we really love playing South Africa,” he added. “Probably because of the amount of respect we’ve got for them and over history, that’s been an outstanding rivalry.
“We’re not so much talking about number ones and number twos and that. We’ve got a chance to go to Townsville and play a foe we’ve got a lot of respect for and put ourselves in a pretty nice position in this Championship, which is something that we’re pretty keen on winning.”
Savea had a similar sentiment.
“It’s always special playing against South Africa,” he said. “They’re special matches.”
While the All Blacks will hold top ranking when World Rugby announce the changes this week, the final standings post the Rugby Championship will likely hinge on who wins the second match of their back-to-back games coming up over the next fortnight.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments