Ireland Fifth In The World

Eddie O’Sullivan’s Ireland have leapfrogged England in the IRB World Rankings, ahead of the World champions’ RBS Six Nations visit to Dublin on February 27.

Andy Robinson’s men failed to put away tournament champions France on Sunday, despite holding a 12-point buffer at half-time.

The French, eventual 18-17 winners at Twickenham, have moved up to fourth in the standings, with England down to sixth.

Ireland rise up to fifth – on the footing of their 40-13 defeat of Scotland on Saturday – comfirming their stature as one of the Six Nations title favourites.

O’Sullivan – who presided over his 30th win in 41 games, against the Scots – has guided his side to nine wins since the start of 2004 – while also losing to France twelve months ago, and Tri-Nations winners South Africa twice last summer.

England, on the other hand, have lost eight of their last 13 games.

Scotland are tenth – just below Fiji in the official standings – while Wales and Italy are unmoved in seventh and eleventh respectively.

OFFICIAL IRB WORLD RANKINGS:

(1) New Zealand 90.90 Rating points
(2) Australia 88.58
(3) South Africa 85.78
(4) France 85.12
(5) Ireland 83.61
(6) England 83.50
(7) Wales 79.58
(8) Argentina 77.63
(9) Fiji 74.17
(10) Scotland 73.94