Argentina edge closer to Ireland in World Rankings
Argentina’s two wins over Ireland have edged them closer to Eddie O’Sullivan’s side in the IRB world rankings.
In a weekend that saw Samoa climb to tenth knocking Scotland out of the top ten and all the northern hemisphere sides lose ground, Argentina’s second win in successive weeks over Ireland saw them move closer to us in the IRB World Rankings.
The Pumas having beaten Ireland 16-0 in Buenos Aires on Saturday to complete a 2-0 series victory over their Rugby World Cup 2007 opponents on home soil are still ranked behind Ireland but have closed the gap.
Ireland’s ranking of fourth with 85.31 was some 5.7 points better than their South American hosts going into the series, but two losses have seen Argentina reduce that deficit to a mere 0.11 points between the fifth and sixth ranked teams.
England are another nation to have seen their ranking points suffer – albeit not as significantly as Ireland – as a result of a series whitewash, two heavy defeats to South Africa mean they drop 0.42 points to 78.93 but remain seventh.
Another nation to slightly improve their ranking points are Italy, albeit by only 0.16 after their 29-5 defeat of Uruguay in Montevideo. The Italians now trail eighth place Wales – who lost 31-0 to Australia in Brisbane – by 0.71 ranking points.
South Africa remain fourth after their 55-22 defeat of England in Pretoria, but are now only 0.42 ranking points behind Australia in third. The Wallabies themselves are unchanged at 0.11 points behind second placed France, whose ranking points do not alter despite a 42-11 defeat by New Zealand in Auckland.
IRB World Rankings as of 04/06/2007
| Position (last week) | Member Union | Rating points |
|---|---|---|
| 1(1) | NEW ZEALAND | 94.59 |
| 2(2) | FRANCE | 85.66 |
| 3(3) | AUSTRALIA | 85.55 |
| 4(4) | SOUTH AFRICA | 85.13 |
| 5(5) | IRELAND | 82.52 |
| 6(6) | ARGENTINA | 82.41 |
| 7(7) | ENGLAND | 78.93 |
| 8(8) | WALES | 76.26 |
| 9(9) | ITALY | 75.55 |
| 10(10) | SAMOA | 74.49 |
| 11(11) | SCOTLAND | 73.94 |
| 12(12) | FIJI | 72.52 |
13(14)  | CANADA | 70.06 |
14(13)  | USA | 67.20 |
| 15(15) | ROMANIA | 66.79 |
| 16(18) | JAPAN | 66.34 |
| 17(17) | GEORGIA | 66.05 |
| 18(16) | TONGA | 65.52 |
| 19(19) | RUSSIA | 64.37 |
| 20(20) | URUGUAY | 63.29 |