Wales missed out an opportunity to move above Argentina and England in the IRB Word Rankings as they lost 33-31 to World Champions South Africa.
Any margin of victory would have seen Wales move from eighth to
sixth and at 16-3 they looked on course to record only their second
ever victory over the Springboks.
However South Africa scored 18 unanswered points in the
match, with the win gaining them .33 ratings points, although they
still sit 2.75 points behind New Zealand who are first.
The hosts only victory over South Africa came in the first
ever match at the Millennium Stadium in 1999, but 16 points from
Ulster bound Ruan Pienaar helped secure victory for the visitors.
In the other Tour match, two tries from Kurtley Beale and
Digby Ioane for Australia helped them beat Fiji 49-3. Their IRB
World Ranking of third was not affected, however, due to the large
ratings gap between the two teams. Had Fiji recorded any margin of
victory over Australia they would have moved above Scotland into
ninth.
RWC rehearsal
USA got their Churchill Cup 2010 campaign off to an
impressive start against their RWC 2011 New Zealand opponents
Russia and moved up to 17th in the IRB World Rankings in the
process.
The Bowl winners from last year beat Russia 39-22 and moved
up one place from 18th against a side who were making their
Churchill Cup debut in what was also a dress rehearsal for
Russia's first ever match on the World stage next year in Pool
C.
The Eagles had conceded an early try through Russia's
full back Vasily Artemyev, who has been impressive for Russia
Sevens on this year's IRB Sevens World Series, but two tries
from Chris Wyles helped Eddie O'Sullivan's side move above
Romania in the rankings.
In the earlier Churchill Cup match Canada beat Uruguay 48-6,
although the result had no affect on the rankings.
Romania's RWC dream lives on
Romaina moved from 18th to 19th despite winning their RWCQ match
against Ukraine.
In the second leg of the European play-off, Romania beat
Ukraine 61-7 for an aggregate 94-10 score to set up the first stage
of the cross continental play-off against Tunisia next month.
Whoever emerges victorious from that tie will face either
Uruguay or Kazakhstan to determine who will join England,
Argentina, Scotland and Georgia in Pool B as the 20th and final
qualifier for the RWC 2011 in New Zealand.
Romania drops to 19th because their match against Ukraine,
who are 28th, had no impact on the rankings.
India climb 12 places
India were the biggest climbers this week, moving up 12
places from 84th to 72nd due to their HSBC A5N Division II semi
final 94-5 victory over China who were 31 places above them in
51st.
Thailand also climbed dramatically after a 56-3 victory over
China in the A5N Division II third/fourth play-off moving from 70th
to 59th.
Having suffered two defeats to teams ranked considerably
lower than them in the rankings China dropped 16 places from 51st
to 67th losing a total of 4.86 ranking points.
Having won their respective semi finals, India and the
Philippines met in the A5N Division II final, although the match
did not affect the rankings due to the Philippines still amassing
enough internationals to be given an official ranking.
Promoted from Division III last year, the Philippines remain
unbeaten in their A5N history and recorded successive promotions
after a 34-12 victory over India in a match they fielded an
all-Filipino team for the first time in history.
The victory continues an unchecked rise in A5N rugby for the
Philippines, who have not lost a match for two years in Asia's
elite rugby tournament.
