Wales will be confirmed in the third band of directly qualified teams for the Rugby World Cup 2015 Pool Allocation Draw when the latest IRB World Rankings are published on Monday 3 December.
The Welsh went into their final Test of 2012 ranked seventh but in the knowledge that defeat against Australia would see them fall below Samoa and Argentina to ninth.
Wales were on course for that win with a 12-9 lead until Australia fly half Kurtley Beale broke away to score in the corner to silence the Millennium Stadium, the Wallabies winning 14-12.
Australia were already assured of a place in band one for the draw after last weekend’s narrow win over Italy, but the defeat of Wales will see them close the gap to South Africa in second.
While tears flowed in Cardiff, England were celebrating at Twickenham after ending the 20-match unbeaten run of world champions New Zealand with an impressive 38-21 victory.
England will remain fifth in the rankings but the gap to France above them will be slashed by nearly three points after the win over New Zealand, who remain the number one side.
The IRB World Rankings are being used to rank the 12 directly qualified teams for RWC 2015 into three bands for the draw with the sides ranked one to four in band one – and crucially avoiding each other until the knockout stages – those five to eight in band two and the remaining four in band three.
The bands will be confirmed as below when the rankings are published on Monday:
Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France
Band 2: England, Ireland, Samoa, Argentina
Band 3: Wales, Italy, Tonga, Scotland
Provisional latest IRB World Rankings
(Official rankings will be published at 12:00 UK time on Monday 3 December, on irb.com)
1 NEW ZEALAND – 90.08
2 SOUTH AFRICA – 86.94
3 AUSTRALIA – 86.87
4 FRANCE – 85.07
5 ENGLAND – 83.90
6 IRELAND – 80.22
7 SAMOA – 78.71
8 ARGENTINA – 78.71
9 WALES – 78.39
10 ITALY – 76.24
11 TONGA – 76.10
12 SCOTLAND – 75.83
** THE POOL ALLOCATION DRAW WILL BE STREAMED LIVE ON RUGBYWORLDCUP.COM FROM 14:55 UK TIME ON 3 DECEMBER (15:55 CET, 16:55 (South Africa), 11:55 (Argentina), 01:55 4 December (NSW Australia), 03:55 4 December (New Zealand, Fiji), 04:55 4 December (Samoa) **
Comment
This just underlines the disapointing last 3 tests for Scotland, went into the end of year tests hoping against hope that we would somehow make it into band 2 for the draw and after it all we only just managed to stay in band 3. But the tests against All Blacks and Boks were always going to be tough but the loss to Tonga was really disheartening even if it didn’t actually make a difference to the band we ended up in anyway.
The talk before this weekend was that Aus could end above Boks in 2nd place if they beat Wales, guess what they didn’t say was by how far they needed to win to end above the Boks. With only 0.07 points in it one wonders if the decision to let Sharpe go for that conversion and miss out on it being too short made any difference to the final rankings points?
If i understand it right this would mean that the groups will then be.
New Zealand,
England
Wales
South Africa
Ireland
Italy
Australia
Samoa
Tonga
France
Argentina
Scotland
That would make life for SA and AUS easier, wish thats how it works.
Super, SA are still 2nd in the rankings. Thought you would like to read that. Got this from Sky Sports.
Anyhow knew it had to be done on a percentage base otherwise it would have been a farce. Said yesterday thought that Oz had to beat Wales by 15 to go ahead of us, turns it it must have been so.
Here are the new Rankings from SkySports
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
NZ, S Africa, Australia top IRB rankings
Updated: 07:39, Sunday December 2, 2012
New Zealand remained top of the International Rugby Board’s rankings ahead of Monday’s pool draw for the 2015 World Cup in England despite ending this year with a stunning 38-21 defeat by England.
Saturday’s Twickenham trouncing was not enough to knock the reigning world champions off the summit and nor was it sufficient for fifth-placed England to break into the top four of the standings.
Meanwhile, Wales’s 14-12 loss to Australia in Cardiff dropped them into ninth place and the third tier of seeds.
This could potentially hamper the chances of Wales, semi-finalists at last year’s World Cup in New Zealand, reaching the knockout stages in three years’ time as they will now face two currently higher-ranked sides in their pool, with only two going through to the quarter-finals.
Wales had to beat Australia on Saturday to avoid slipping from seventh place and they were on course for that victory at 12-9 ahead until Kurtley Beale’s try with just 20 seconds left on the clock at the Millennium Stadium rescued a 14-12 win for the Wallabies.
Defeat dropped Wales below Samoa and Argentina in the IRB standings.
Australia were already assured of a place in band one for the draw after the previous weekend’s narrow win over Italy, but the defeat of Wales allowed the Wallabies to close the gap to South Africa in second.
World Cup pool draw bands Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France Band 2: England, Ireland, Samoa, Argentina Band 3: Wales, Italy, Tonga, Scotland
Leading IRB rankings after Saturday’s matches (position, country, ranking points): 1. New Zealand 90.08 2. South Africa 86.94 3. Australia 86.87 4. France 85.07 5. England 83.90 6. Ireland 80.22 7. Samoa 78.71 8. Argentina 78.71 9. Wales 78.39 10. Italy 76.24 11. Tonga 76.10 12. Scotland 75.83
I personally have no idea why they do the draw so early. Should do it about a year and a half before, that way we will get the rankings closer to the world more or less where teams will be by then. Three years before is just crazy, many teams might have climbed the ladder or dropped down by then.
should read = world cup
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