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'Beatable' Boks not the most dominant team ever: Jeremy Guscott
By Jon Newcombe
‘Beatable’ South Africa have to be taken down by England and removed from top spot in the World Rugby Rankings if Steve Borthwick’s side are going to repeat the feat of the Rugby World Cup-winning class of 2003, and win in Australia, according to England legend Jeremy Guscott.
An 11-match winning streak has England earmarked as South Africa’s biggest threat when the Rugby World Cup takes place in 2027, but the rolls royce of a centre says they still have points to prove.
Writing in his regular column in The Rugby Paper, Guscott said: “To get to the level of the 2003 team, Steve Borthwick’s side has got to get to the top of the world’s six leading nations over the next two years. That might be attainable because, although South Africa are playing very well at the moment, I don’t think they would dominate a current World XV – and the only people likely to say they would are South African fans.
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“My sense is that South Africa in 2023 were not as dominant as world champions as they were in 2019, or as dominant as New Zealand in 2015, or England in 2003. This is because since 2019 the top teams have all beaten each other, and although the Springboks are the strongest side, they are beatable having sustained a number of defeats.
“So opportunity knocks for England, starting with a Six Nations campaign in which two of their first three fixtures are home games against Wales and Ireland. In between is a trip north of the border to play Scotland, and win all three and a Triple Crown will be theirs by the mid-point of the tournament.
“If they then went on to to win the Six Nations with a Grand Slam you’d be thinking, ‘wait a minute, we’ve got the makings here.'”
While Guscott’s World XV view flies in the face of the evidence – six Springboks were named in World Rugby’s Men’s Dream Team of the Year for 2025, he does have a point around South Africa’s dominance, at least from a rankings point of view.
South Africa’s lead at the top of the rankings as we approach the end of the year is set at 3.61 points over New Zealand, which is historically nowhere near the biggest. In the 22 full calendar years that the rankings have existed, there have been 10 occasions where a team has had a bigger advantage once the international season has ended.
New Zealand, in 2006, were 8.72 points ahead of France at the year’s end, for example, while the 2015 All Blacks team that Guscott references were 6.77 points to the good over Australia, the team they defeated in the Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham.
Top 5 rankings leads at the year’s end
| Year | Team | Lead |
| 2006 | New Zealand | 8.72 |
| 2015 | New Zealand | 6.77 |
| 2010 | New Zealand | 5.74 |
| 2014 | New Zealand | 5.47 |
| 2020 | South Africa | 4.71 |
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