Springboks climb up IRB World Rankings to grab second spot - Rugby news
International Rugby Board (IRB)’s world rankings have revealed that the South African national team, Springboks, has moved up the listings from the previously number three spot to the number two rank.
IRB world rankings are rugby union national teams ranked in accordance to the game points earned by the teams with the highest rank given to the team who wins most of the games. This ranking is regulated by IRB and was introduced just a month ahead of the
World Cup 2003. IRB will span the ratings of the member countries within the bracket of 0 to 100, with the highest ranked member team usually above the 90 mark.
Previously on the second spot, Australia have slipped to the third after losing to the English squad. With the victory against the Wallabies, England now boasts the fourth position in the IRB rankings surpassing France that sits on the fifth spot.
This entirely alters the top five positions which will be marching into the new season of rugby, where New Zealand’s All Blacks lead with the rating of 93.04. All Blacks are closely followed by South Africa. Boks, with a rating of 86.70, is in tough competition
with Wallabies with 85.90 to their credit.
Argentina lost to Italy which ranks them seven on the IRB listing that is just ahead of Scotland with the ratings of 79.81.
Amongst the top ten teams marching into Rugby world Cup 2011, the real competition is amongst the top five teams of IRB for the World Cup title.
Assuming the number two spot, Springboks will contest against the Wallabies and All Blacks in the Tri-Nations tournament. Tri- Nations is kicking off on July 23, in Sydney with the inaugural match of Boks against the host Wallabies. In the wake of the very
recent flight scare episode experienced by Boks while the squad was flying in for the Tri- Nations to Sydney, the team according to the expectation of the Boks’ coach will be in a stronger position to contest its opponents.
Currently Boks are the title holders of the Rugby World Cup 2007 and are the winners of the British and Irish Lions Series 2009.
According to the Laureus World Sports Awards, Springboks is titled “Team of the year 2008”. Peter de Villiers succeeded Jake White as Boks’ coach since 2007.
This pack of green and gold jerseys is led by John Smit. For last November’s games his position was filled in by Victor Matfield, as Smit had was not part of the squad on account of a knee injury.
Tags: