World rankings ridiculed again as struggling Ireland handed opportunity to take No1 this weekend
Just seven days after being annihilated by England at Twickenham, embarrassed Ireland remarkably have the chance to climb to No1 in the world rankings when they face Wales at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
That is a bizarre situation given how terribly poor Joe Schmidt’s side were in London and indeed throughout 2019. It was the second loss to England this year and Ireland also shipped a hefty 25-7 loss to Wales in Cardiff in March.
With Warren Gatland only retaining one player – James Davies – from the side that beat England two weeks ago, there is a possibility that a reeling Ireland could pull off a victory to claim top spot, albeit they must win by more than 15 points.
Regardless of whether they win or not on Saturday, there is one thing that the rugby world can agree on – that Ireland are certainly not the best team in the world at the moment. The criticism that Wales have received since moving to No1 will pale into insignificance should Ireland take their place.
Schmidt’s side were legitimately the form team in the world at the end of 2018 after winning the Grand Slam, winning a series in Australia and then beating the All Blacks, but that is no longer the case. At this point in time, Wales have a way much stronger shout for being No1.
World Rugby vice president Agustin Pichot has joined the chorus of criticism surrounding the world rankings system after Wales overtook New Zealand as the world's top-ranked side.https://t.co/LZvSb3UK5q
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 29, 2019
As expected, there has been quite a humorous and impassioned response to this situation on social media, with the rankings understandably deemed to be farcical by some fans.
With many northern hemisphere sides naming experimental and weakened sides in these World Cup warm-ups, it has meant that results can go any way, creating absurd ramifications for the world rankings. This has been the reaction:
Ah stop it now with your rubbish mythical rankings. You do rugby no benefit with this bullshit. Whatever mechanism you use to calculate these is total nonsense.
— grumpyMOL (@grumpymol) August 29, 2019
https://twitter.com/M34515023/status/1167107025941254145?s=20
https://twitter.com/bptd1234/status/1167075596515647489?s=20
https://twitter.com/rickyjoneshere/status/1167077393716121600?s=20
Lol I'm Irish, Wales are playing better than us
Here's hoping for the win though
— Colum Ritchie (@ColumRitchie) August 29, 2019
Had Ireland risen to the top of the rankings after beating the All Blacks last November in Dublin, very few people would have complained as they had just beaten the then incumbent No1 side.
But the timing of this weekend’s shot at securing the No1 status had struck many people as bizarre, the opportunity coming a week after conceding their most points ever against England.
The rankings have been contentious in recent weeks with even World Rugby vice-chairman Agustin Pichot ridiculing them, and it will only get worse should Ireland win by 15 points or more on Saturday.
WATCH: The RugbyPass stadium guide to the ground in Toyota where Wales will open their World Cup pool campaign against Georgia
Comments on RugbyPass
Think it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
1 Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
5 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
5 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
5 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
5 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
237 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
90 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
20 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
1 Go to comments