Springbok 'uppercut' reshapes 'tight' world rankings

The international rugby landscape can change in a heartbeat, or perhaps more accurately, a Springbok rolling maul.

The South Africans were dominant up front against New Zealand and profited handsomely from it, ripening the narrative of the Rugby World Cup.

After impressive performances from Scotland against France, the Springboks’ World Cup pool looked like it was going to be a hotly contested encounter with great potential for upsets.

And while anything is possible, the South Africans have made a statement, reminding the world they can bully the best of teams when the pressure mounts.

The World Cup implications will be debated as the hierarchy of the world’s top teams is revised.

Ireland, who join South Africa and Scotland in pool B, sit atop the World Rugby rankings, enjoying a 13-month-long winning streak. New Zealand sit in second and prior to the Twickenham clash, the Springboks were snipping at the heels of the French who sat third.

South Africa has since overtaken the World Cup hosts, France.

The shift in power begs the question, how tight is it among the top teams in the world heading into the Rugby World Cup?

“It is (tight),” All Blacks coach Ian Foster admitted after the match. “But it wasn’t tight at Twickenham tonight, was it? It wasn’t as tight as we wanted it to be.”

A 35-7 loss brings up another unflattering record for the All Blacks under Foster, marking the largest margin of defeat the team has ever succumbed to.

While the defeat will weigh heavy on the hearts of the players, there’s no time to dwell with a World Cup opening match against France just two weeks away.

“We’ve always known, you’ve got to be at your best and I thought they were, and we weren’t. So, we’ll go away and have a look at that.

“But the reality is, if you could choose one trophy that wasn’t in the cabinet at the end of the year, it’d be that one.

“And so it’s not going to dampen us in what we’re doing but we certainly got an uppercut today, and we got an uppercut in a couple of areas of the game that we’ve actually been making some big strides.

“Our lineout, scrums, our discipline had been really good in that place, but we got squeezed today and it exposed a couple of habits that we’ve got to sort out.

“But it’s a great time for that to happen and it also reiterates you’ve got to keep your players on the park. Losing our form lock against the South Africans at that stage of the game doesn’t make life any easier.”