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Rugby World Cup power rankings: Week two's movers and shakers

By Online Editors
Ireland's Jacob Stockdale is dejected after the loss to Japan. (Getty Images)

The 2019 Rugby World Cup is about to enter its third week and there has been some substantial movement in the latest power rankings, not least due to Japan’s highly impressive win over Ireland in Pool A.

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South Africa and Wales are among the other risers whilst Ireland and Australia have fallen from their previous spots, as all 20 sides jockey for position and attempt to qualify for the quarter-finals.

For the third week in a row, New Zealand are sitting pretty in top spot, something which is unlikely to now change, unless Italy can give them a shock next week.

  1. New Zealand (Previous rank: 1)

The All Blacks backed up their victory over South Africa with a 63-0 jaunt against Canada and they have done nothing to dispel the notion that they are the favourites for the trophy. The gap may have been lessened by the chasing pack over the last couple of years, but New Zealand are still the best overall rugby team on the planet right now.

  1. England (Previous rank: 3, up 1)

Despite not playing this week, England rise by default, with Ireland taking a significant tumble down the rankings. England looked professional and unfazed by their first two outings which, somewhat expectedly, resulted in two bonus point wins. Their first true challenge comes against Argentina on Saturday.

https://twitter.com/RugbyPass/status/1179702303177216000?s=20

  1. South Africa (Previous rank: 4, up 1)

The Springboks fell last week due to their lack of ruthlessness against the All Blacks, something which they made up for in their 57-3 win over Namibia. Their African rivals aren’t the biggest test on the Boks’ schedule and, a potential upset against Italy aside on Friday, Rassie Erasmus’ side should be cruising into the quarter-finals, where they could well see a Rugby World Cup rematch with Japan.

  1. Wales (Previous rank: 5, up 1)

Winning the crunch game of their pool against Australia has done wonders for the spirit of Welsh fans. Warren Gatland and his team are now in complete control of Pool D and should results go to form against Fiji and in Pool C, they will avoid England at the quarter-final stage. Wales look to be building nicely as the tournament develops.

  1. Japan (Previous rank: 8, up 3)

Starting out the Rugby World Cup in 10th, Japan have now moved up a total of five spots, something which is certainly warranted based on their 19-12 victory over Ireland. They have shown that they are capable of knocking off tier one sides when they play to their potential and home advantage, particularly comfort in the humid conditions, is proving to be a significant one for the Brave Blossoms.

Rugby World Cup power rankings
Michael Leitch’s side are in control of their own destiny. (Getty Images)

  1. Ireland (Previous rank: 2, down 4)

Joe Schmidt’s side looked abject against Japan and fall significantly as a result. They should still qualify for the quarter-finals, something which has been helped by their win over Russia on Thursday, but even that performance looked laboured for large portions of the game. They still have the Samoa game to tune up ahead of the knockouts, but Ireland look significantly short of peaking currently.

  1. Australia (Previous rank: 6, down 1)

The loss to Wales causes a small fall for the Wallabies and although the scores were close come the final whistle in that game, it was a contest that Wales controlled for the majority. Australia are still more than capable of upsetting the best teams in this tournament on their day, although they don’t look to have the consistency to be a real threat for the title at the moment.

  1. France (Previous rank: 7, down 1)

Les Bleus have looked pedestrian so far in the tournament and if they finish second in Pool C, as they are currently tracking to, Wales are unlikely to be too concerned by the challenge. France have won both of their games so far and sit just a point behind England in the group standings. That said, their 33-9 bonus point win over the USA on Wednesday certainly flattered the European side.

  1. Argentina (Previous rank: 9)

After losing narrowly to France in the opening week, Mario Ledesma would have been looking for a backlash from his side against Tonga. Although they triumphed 28-12, it was far from a convincing performance from Los Pumas and they will need to make dramatic improvements to knock off England on Saturday and resurrect their chances of making the quarter-finals.

  1. Italy (Previous rank: 10)

Both of Italy’s wins came in the opening week, so there’s been little opportunity for them to move here. They play South Africa on Friday and will be buoyed by memories of their win over the Boks in Florence in 2016. The Azzurri have grown over the two games so far and although an upset is unlikely, it’s not impossible in Shizuoka.

  1. Scotland (Previous rank: 12, up 1)

Gregor Townsend got his needed resurgence against Samoa on Monday and Scotland were excellent value for their 34-0 win over the Pacific Islanders. They will now need to beat Russia and then see off hosts Japan in the final pool game so there is still plenty to do, but at least the mood in camp will have been boosted after the debacle against Ireland.

  1. Fiji (Previous rank: 15, up 3)

Fiji looked back to close to something near their best in the second half of their game against Georgia, as they raced through the gears and scored some excellent tries in testing conditions. It’s likely too late to save their quarter-final ambitions, but if they can replicate that showing against Wales, they will give the European side plenty to think about.

https://twitter.com/RugbyPass/status/1179654958246793217?s=20

  1. Georgia (Previous rank: 11, down 2)

Despite being competitive in the first half, Georgia’s game with Fiji was illuminating as to the Lelos’ position in the current global hierarchy. They were comfortably outmatched after the interval and weren’t able to impose their dominance at the scrum or in the tight as they would have liked. An upset win over Australia looks unlikely, although they retain a puncher’s chance.

  1. Tonga (Previous rank: 16, up 2)

Tonga were extremely unlucky not to take something out of their game with Argentina. Had Tomas Lavanini’s shoulder charge been called at the end of the first half in that game and a penalty try given, Tonga may well have come away with a bonus point or potentially even more. They dominated much of the second half and will have given themselves plenty to be confident about heading into their game with France.

  1. Samoa (Previous rank: 13, down 2)

Cracks that the win over Russia had papered over were quickly shown to still exist when Samoa met with Scotland on Monday. They were well beaten in all facets in that game and will need to be much better to trouble Japan on Saturday. Injuries and suspensions have not helped the Islanders.

  1. Uruguay (Previous rank: 14, down 2)

Uruguay’s 33-7 loss to a heavily rotated Georgian team was probably a fairer reflection of where they are right now than the upset win over Fiji, although they are a team that continues to do themselves credit at this Rugby World Cup. A number of individuals are standing out for Los Teros and the future does at least look relatively bright for the South Americans.

  1. USA (Previous rank: 17)

The Eagles were highly competitive against France on Wednesday and kept it to a one-score game until the 66th minute. Unfortunately for the USA, despite being dogged, resilient and frustrating a poor French side, they offered little in terms of attacking threat themselves. France left the door wide open and unfortunately Gary Gold’s side weren’t able to walk through it.

https://twitter.com/RugbyPass/status/1179329658749411333?s=20

  1. Russia (Previous rank: 19, up 1)

A second straight week of ranking rises for Russia, despite having lost all three of their games at the tournament so far. As they were against Japan and Samoa, Russia were competitive with Ireland for vast swathes of their game in Kobe, despite not having the cutting edge to really hurt the tier one side. They’ve won a lot of fans in their three defeats.

  1. Namibia (Previous rank: 18, down 1)

Namibia may have scored a few tries against Italy in their opener but there was far less for them to celebrate in an extremely one-sided loss to South Africa on Saturday. Their looming game with Canada is the crunch fixture for them in Pool B, in what has been a challenging group for the two tier two teams.

  1. Canada (Previous rank: 20)

Unfortunately for Kingsley Jones, his side retain bottom spot in these rankings, after they followed up their loss to Italy with a 63-0 defeat at the hands of the All Blacks. Canada actually did well to keep the score at under a point a minute, as New Zealand blew the North American side away in the first 20 minutes of both halves.

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J
Jon 3 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

28 Go to comments
A
Adrian 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

28 Go to comments
T
Trevor 10 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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