World Rankings: Boks to break into top three?
PREVIEW: The World Cup warm-up matches will be coming in thick and fast this weekend and World Rugby has published its latest ranking permutations.
Seventeen of the top 20 sides in the rankings are in action this weekend with Georgia, Portugal and Spain the exceptions.
With Ireland and New Zealand – the top two sides in the world – unable to pick up any points in their respective games against Italy and Australia (due to the points difference between teams before home weighting is factored in), there is an opportunity for France to make some headway in the rankings this weekend.
Les Bleus lost second place to the All Blacks last weekend but will reclaim it if they manage any form of win over Scotland at Murrayfield.
Top spot is possible for France if they win and Ireland don’t manage to do any better than draw with Italy in Dublin.
France and South Africa could become the world’s top two sides, with Ireland and New Zealand falling to third and fourth, but it would take an unexpected set of results for that to happen.
In addition to a France victory, South Africa would need to beat Argentina by more than 15 points at the Vélez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires and hope that Ireland and New Zealand lose at home by the same margin.
South Africa will replace RWC 2023 hosts France in third if they win and Les Bleus lose – as long as the margin in the one of the games is more than 15 points.
Scotland cannot pick up enough points to improve on fifth place but England can replace them there if the Scots fail to win and England beat Wales in Cardiff.
The lowest England can fall to in defeat is eighth, which is their all-time low. A defeat by more than 15 points would leave them just 0.73 points better off than Wales.
Wales will equal their lowest-ever ranking of 10th if they lose by more than 15 points.
A big win for Argentina at home to the Springboks could send them as high as fifth but other results would have to go their way, too, for this to happen.
Having climbed back into the top 10 for the first time in nearly four years last weekend, Fiji can continue their ascent with victory against Japan in Tokyo.
A win for Fiji of any description will be enough for them to replace Wales in ninth if accompanied by a Welsh defeat in Cardiff.
Japan in 12th and Fiji in 10th will swap places if the Brave Blossoms build on last weekend’s win against Tonga and achieve back-to-back victories.
There is the potential for Fiji to drop lower if Italy achieve a positive result against Ireland in Dublin.
Italy will climb as many as three places in victory, moving up to 11th.
Samoa, meanwhile, can make up one of the places they lost after defeat by Fiji last weekend if they beat Tonga.
Tonga will become the higher-ranked of the two teams if they win in Apia.
Uruguay cannot improve on their present position of 17th even with a resounding victory over Namibia and will be overtaken by USA if the Eagles defeat Romania in Bucharest.
USA could also move above Portugal, the team that made it to RWC 2023 at their expense by winning the Final Qualification Tournament if they win by more than 15 points.
Romania will climb two places to 17th if they beat USA by such a big margin.
Namibia can only move up the rankings if they win by more than 15 points, in which case they would replace Uruguay in the top 20 and also move above Spain.
