South Africa set to languish in second?

Thursday 19 November 2009
Published By: Ben Welch
International Rugby > South Africa

All the talk of recent months has been about South Africa's dominance of world rugby, but they've been knocked off the top of the International Rugby Board rankings and look set to stay behind the All Blacks.

The Springboks are world champions and achieved comfortable Tri Nations success, but their loss to France last week has seen New Zealand overtake them.

And beating Italy won't make any difference to their position this week unless England can overcome the Kiwis at Twickenham for the first time since 2002.

That, of course, is a laughable notion - particularly as Graham Henry is bringing back many of the stars who were missing from the game in Milan.

Meanwhile, Murrayfield looks set to be an interesting focal point in terms of rankings this week - with Australia facing an improving Scotland side.

Defeat by more than 15 points would see the Wallabies drop to a lowly sixth, although that is probably even less likely than an English victory.