AUCKLAND, 16 Sept. - Ireland have never beaten Australia on the Rugby World Cup stage, losing two of their four meetings by a single point, including the 1991 quarter-final at Lansdowne Road when Michael Lynagh’s last-gasp try secured a 19-18 victory as the Wallabies went on to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.
If Ireland can end this barren run when the sides meet in a key Pool C encounter at Eden Park on Saturday, they could spark numerous changes in the top 10 of the IRB World Rankings and end the southern hemisphere dominance in the process.
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New Zealand, Australia and South Africa have occupied the top three spots for virtually all of the past three years, but if Ireland can find their groove against the Wallabies and win by more than 15 points they can rocket from eighth to third.
Ireland have only briefly occupied third spot twice before, the last time in late 2006, and could even rise to a new high of second if defending champions South Africa were also to suffer a heavy loss at the hands of Fiji in their Pool D tussle in Wellington on Saturday.
A smaller winning margin will still lift Ireland above Celtic rivals Scotland and Wales into sixth with Australia surrendering second spot to a victorious Springbok outfit. Australia, in Robbie Deans’ 50th Test as coach, can slump to a new low of sixth if they lose heavily.
South Africa, who scraped past Wales 17-16 last weekend, could also fall to sixth to equal their lowest ever standing if Fiji can repeat their heroics of RWC 2007 where they upset Wales in the pool stages to qualify for the quarter-finals, where they lost 37-20 to the Springboks in Marseille.
Victories for Australia and South Africa will mean there is no impact on the rating points of any of the sides involved in those games, the same being true if the higher-ranked New Zealand beat Japan in Hamilton on Friday and Argentina defeat Romania in the first match of Super Saturday.
Samoa chase new high
If Ireland and Fiji do throw the form book out the window and enjoy victories then England and France could find themselves climbing one place, even though wins over Georgia and Canada respectively will have no impact on their rating.
England are currently the leading northern hemisphere nation in the IRB World Rankings in fourth, having climbed above France on the back of a tight 13-9 victory over Argentina in their Pool B battle in Dunedin last weekend.
Fiji began the week in 15th spot, but have provisionally risen one place without even taking to the pitch as a result of Tonga’s 25-20 loss to Canada on Wednesday. Tonga will slip three places to 15th with the defeat – barring Georgia upsetting England or Romania beating Argentina – with Canada provisionally rising to 12th ahead of their Pool A encounter with France.
The Canucks could climb even higher if they stun France or Wales avoid a hat-trick of RWC losses to Samoa, having suffered pool defeats in 1991 and 1999. A Welsh victory will not improve their position of sixth barring shocks elsewhere, but Samoa will fall below Italy and Canada to 12th.
A Fijian win over South Africa could see a defeated Samoa slip even further and propel their fellow islanders into the top 10, an area they occupied before the IRB Pacific Nations Cup in July. By contrast, a Samoa win will elevate them to a new high of seventh or eighth, depending on the margin of victory.
If Samoa can put a huge dent in Wales’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals with an emphatic win then they could close to within a hundredth of a rankings point of Scotland, who would climb one place as a result of a Welsh fall, possibly out of the top 10 for the first time depending on other results.
The IRB World Rankings update every Monday at 12:00 UK time.
RNS kb/gs/sg
