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Ex Bok's seven-word response to claims Ireland are the world's best
By Josh Raisey
After three rounds of Guinness Six Nations action, many figures in the game have hailed runaway leaders Ireland as the best team in the world, but former South Africa centre Robbie Fleck has a simple response to that.
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The 31-cap Springbok replied to those claims by asserting “they are not playing against quality opposition,” on RPTV’s Boks Office podcast recently.
Fleck is not the first former South Africa player to bite back at such claims, as they have understandably leapt to the defence of the reigning back-to-back world champions the Springboks, who sit at the summit of the World Rugby rankings.
The former Bath centre has not been impressed by the standard of Ireland’s opposition so far this Championship, and therefore believes Andy Farrell’s team cannot be regarded as the unofficial world number ones.
Even if Ireland go on to win a likely Grand Slam, it is unlikely that Ireland will convince Fleck and many of his compatriots of their status at the top of rugby.
The true test for many South Africa supporters, and perhaps even Ireland too, will come in July when Peter O’Mahony leads his side into a two-Test series against the Springboks.
When asked what he thinks of this year’s Six Nations by Hanyani Shimange, Fleck replied “not much”.
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“Pretty disappointing England,” he added. “You need the traditional guys to be strong. France have been disappointing as well. So there’s only one team in it really.
“Patches of brilliance with Scotland which you always get with Gregor Townsend and the players he selects. Finn Russell, Huw Jones and Duhan van der Merwe, they’ve all been good, but there’s no real competition for Ireland, which has been quite frustrating and disappointing, to be honest.
“Everyone talks about the Irish now being number one in the world, but they can’t be because they are not playing against quality opposition.
“Yes, we’ll see when we play Ireland in the [July] Tests, but for now the Six Nations has been disappointing in terms of the overall product.
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“There’s one really good genuine side in the Irish team and they deserve that, they are very well coached, they’ve got quality players, but England have been disappointing, France have been disappointing.”