NZ get another sniff at top spot
Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:24
New Zealand's return to winning ways last Saturday sees them once again move to within one rating point of the table-leading Springboks, in the latest International Rugby Board (IRB) world rankings.
Back to back defeats by South Africa and Australia had left New Zealand in danger of slipping to third for only the second time since the ranking began, but their impressive Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations Test victory in Auckland - with two tries apiece for Tony Woodcock and Ma'a Nonu - saw the All Blacks halve the deficit to the world champions above them to only 0.89 rating points.
Australia, who would have swapped places with New Zealand had they repeated their victory in Sydney seven days earlier, now lie just over a point behind them in third with Argentina completing the all Southern Hemisphere top four, albeit over three points behind the Wallabies.
The Tri-Nations, though, was not the only competition taking place over the weekend that affected the IRB World Rankings with eight teams involved in the final round of pool matches in the Africa Cup, which doubles as the region's qualifying process for Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2011 in New Zealand.
The four higher-ranked sides were all at home with Morocco the only one of this quartet to suffer a defeat, and so see their dreams of a first RWC appearance disappear following the Ivory Coast's 21-9 victory in Casablanca.
Ivory Coast, who played at RWC 1995, had gone into the Pool Two decider trailing 28th ranked Morocco by 14 places, but with the first victory over their hosts since 1993 they have risen two places to 40th.
By contrast Morocco are the biggest fallers in the latest rankings, sliding seven places to their lowest ever position of 35th with Brazil, Poland, Paraguay and Kazakhstan all benefiting with a one place gain without taking to field.
Tunisia were another nation to benefit from Morocco's fall, gaining another place in addition to the two that saw them leap-frog Uganda and Hong Kong as a result of their emphatic 44-15 defeat of Kenya in their Africa Cup encounter in Tunis.
They now sit 29th in the rankings, the third highest of the African nations behind number one side South Africa and Namibia, whose 35-21 defeat of Zimbabwe to top Pool One had no impact on their position of 26th because of the 30 places separating the two sides.
Kenya, who had gone into the Pool Three decider with Tunisia full of confidence after overwhelming Cameroon 76-8 last month, slip one place to 41st as a result of their own heavy defeat and Ivory Coast's upset in Casablanca.
The weekend's other Africa Cup encounter was a repeat of the 2007 final, which Uganda won convincingly 42-11. This match was a much closer affair with only replacement Steven Ogwete's try sealing a 32-22 victory in Kampala to top Pool Four.
Uganda remain 31st after this victory, which sees them progress to the Africa Cup semifinals next year and only two wins away from qualifying for RWC 2011 as Africa One. Madagascar, though, fall three places to 46th with Lithuania, Croatia and Trinidad & Tobago all climbing one as a result.
Click here for the full table of world rankings
