1
Where your team could end up after this weekend's crunch Tests
England dropped out of the top three in the World Rugby rankings this week for the first time in two years.
ADVERTISEMENT
And it could get a hell of a lot worse for Eddie Jones’ side if they lose again this weekend. Elsewhere it could be a historic weekend for Georgia, while others including Wales and South Africa have a chance to make a big leap.
RugbyPass looks at all the permutations and combinations from this weekend’s matches.
SOUTH AFRICA (7) v ENGLAND (4)
A heavy defeat in Bloemfontein could England plummet to sixth – yikes! On the plus side a win coupled with an Ireland victory over Australia in Melbourne would restore England to third.
Victory for South Africa will see Rassie Erasmus’ team pass England and Scotland, while a high-margin win could see them jump ahead of Wales and Australia too into third.
AUSTRALIA (3) v IRELAND (2)
A 12-match unbeaten run for Ireland was abruptly halted by the Wallabies in Brisbane last weekend. If Michael Cheika’s team can follow up that 18-9 success with another win they would wrap up the three-Test series with a game to spare, with the added bonus of moving up to second in the rankings. Alternatively a big Irish win could generate as much as one and three-quarters of a point, which would cement their second place spot, but they’d still a million miles away from the runaway All Blacks in first.
ARGENTINA (10) v WALES (5)
Wales’ first win in Argentina for 14 years, after their last-gasp win over the Springboks in Washington, it’s been successful summer for Warren Gatland’s men. In fact they could even move up to third in the rankings, but would need a beefy 15 point win over Los Pumas and looking for a helping hand elsewhere, with wins for South Africa and Ireland also.
USA (15) v SCOTLAND (6)
A comfortable win for Scotland is expected with their band of brothers, but it’s not going to lift Gregor Townsend’s men as they won’t gt any ratings points because of a gap of more than 14 rating points between the sides. If the USA pull off the shock of 2018 they would move to 14th, while an extremely unlikely victory of more than 15 points (a few Scottish players would pick up P45’s should that occur!) would bump the USA up to 13th if Italy don’t prevail against Japan.
ADVERTISEMENT
NEW ZEALAND (1) v FRANCE (8)
New Zealand are streaking away at the top of the rankings, the good news for the rest of the teams attempting catch-up is that the All Blacks cannot extend their lead at the top with a win over Jacques Brunel’s side, because there is nearly 15 points and seven places between the sides. Les Blues can elevate themselves to sixth, all they have to do is win by more than 15 points – easy! Well maybe not, considering the 52-11 thumping Steve Hansen’s men doled out in Auckland last weekend.
FIJI (9) v GEORGIA (12)
Georgia can move into the top 10 for the first time in their history if they win against Fiji, in fact they can even go up to ninth if Argentina ship a heavy defeat to Wales. Fiji’s 24-22 win over Samoa last weekend bumped them up to 9th, they can’t go any higher with the gap to 8th-placed France too large.
TONGA (13) v SAMOA (16)
Tonga will stay 13th if they avoid defeat. A comfortable win for Samoa along with an Italy defeat could see them move up to 13th, however they’re not on form and Fuimaono Titimaea Tafua has made nine changes from the side which narrowly lost to Fiji last week.
ADVERTISEMENT
JAPAN (11) v ITALY (14)
Japan beat Italy 34-17 last week and Conor’s O’Shea’s team would haul themselves back up to 12th with a comfortable win in Kobe.
Comments on RugbyPass
More useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
22 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
1 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
21 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
13 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
21 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
13 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
22 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
1 Go to commentsHe’s strung together a few strong seasons, I’d like to see him in the ABs and build some depth along with Reiko and ALB. Levi Aumua hasn’t taken the step we hoped to see but time yet.
2 Go to commentsWhere has our good friend Pecos gone!? Similar place to the Crusaders D, the abyss.
4 Go to commentsNice piece Nick. I haven’t seen much of the brumbies this year so will keep my powder dry on charlie, but clearly has the speed and footwork to be damaging in space. Similar to Samu, I’d worry about the size of our pack if the likes of Mcreight and Cale were in the b/row together. Maybe Cale could play a similar finisher role like Samu did for Rennie’s wallabies. Has Cale leapfrogged wilson in your eyes? He obviously has the lineout, but harry probably better (although not great) in the physical stuff and also has great hands in the loose. You’d have to say mcreight and valetini are shoe-ins at 7/8, so the question becomes who matches best with them at 6 and on the bench. I don’t know if he has a high enough ceiling, but id love to see wright given a shot based on how much bad luck he has had with injuries. He may also fit that no-nonsense graft/work rate irish approach…? If schmidt wants size and a 4/6 tweener then I’d probably pick Uru. On the bench I’d have no idea, Wilson if you want to give valetini a rest, and maybe hanigan/wright/uru as 6 replacements.
21 Go to commentsWho the heck is Billy Fulton?
13 Go to commentsCale has all the potential no doubt. So has Harry Wilson except for his dumb arse coach over the last few years who told him just to run at brick walls all the time. Valentini would be devastating at 6. As he was until some idiot thought oh yeah, move our best player to another position. Not mentioning any flightless or thank you names of course. I very much dislike claiming one player is the saviour, because injuries are so prevalent in the game these days as the players are bigger and faster, so the discussion should be who are at least the best two players in one position. For me it’s Harry Wilson and Cale at 8 at the moment with Valentini or Hooper from the Brumbies at 6. Great options. Seru Uru should be in the reserves too. A game changer.
21 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a card waiting to happen, Cane has been out with injury as well as playing in Japan, I think they’ll go with in-Japan-but-still-the-man Savea. Samisoni Taukeaho will be Captain after 2027, so he might get some Captain minutes against an Italy or Japan.
13 Go to commentsDissapointed that after 7 years Crusaders could not have found a coach that believed their system and improved on it. What was he expecting?
6 Go to comments