Showing the weakness of the IRB ranking algorithm:

1. (1) NEW ZEALAND 94.59
2. (2) FRANCE 85.94
3. (4) Ranking Climber AUSTRALIA 85.55
4. (5) Ranking Climber SOUTH AFRICA 84.71
5. (3) Ranking Faller IRELAND 84.68

South Africa and Australia have climbed above Ireland owing to to the Ireland vs Pacific Islands game not being counted as a ranking Test International:

Australia’s thumping 44-15 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield secured only the second victory of the autumn for the double Rugby World Cup winners, but it was enough to lift John Connolly’s side into third place once again owing to Ireland’s 61-10 victory over the Pacific Islanders not counting towards the rankings.

South Africa also moved up the rankings to fourth after defeating England 25-14 at Twickenham in the second of a two-test series against the world champions. The victory, which was South Africa’s first at Twickenham since 1997, may have been the only success of the tour for Jake White’s youthful side, but it was also enough to see them leapfrog Ireland into fourth.

I just wish the bookies would follow suit 😉

Ireland 61-17 Pacific Islands

A nice 8 try to 3 victory for Ireland’s last International in the old Lansdowne Road stadium in front of 43,000. The game was messy at times, with the Islanders showing some of their individual class, but they found it hard to deal with such a confident Irish side. Particularly impressive were the old hands, Horgan and Hickie, and the young blood of Wallace, Best, Heaslip and Fitzgerald.

From an Irish perspective here are some great take-aways for me from the Autumn series :

• Ireland are indeed the second best team in the world.
• We now have real strength in depth. Wallace, Boss, Fitzgerald, Trimble, Best, Best, Young, the list goes on and on. Of course, this point is directly linked to…
• “Steady Eddie” O’Sullivan is experimenting – finally! I’ve been a big critic of EOS’s decisions in the past (e.g. playing a half-back pairing of Stringer-Humphries on a so-called “Development Tour to Japan”) Whoever got him to cop on, buy that man a drink!
• Our most established players have at least one Rugby World Cup in them. I was concerned that the guys who have been around the block and back might be into the danger zone.

Any negatives? Well it’s not so easy to find any! We’ve still got the old problem of cover in the front row, we don’t really have a couple of props of World Cup standard lying about undiscovered. Hopefully the scrum will not be our undoing.

Coming into next years Six Nations I suspect we’ll be red-hot favourites, and rightly so. In fact, here are the odds for Six Nations 2007 – Outright from Boyle Sports:

• Ireland: 11/8 (1.375)
• France: 7/4 (1.75)
• Wales: 9/2 (4.5)
• England: 11/2 (5.5)
• Scotland: 25/1 (25)
• Italy: 200/1 (200)

I’d be interested to know why they’ve rated France and England so highly. I’d have my cash on Wales over either of those two if it were tomorrow – are they expecting a renaissance from a New England (have to get rid of poor Andy first, lads). I think Scotland are underrated there too, despite their poor showing against Australia.

Anyway, so that’s the end of a strong Autumn Series for Ireland. It’s a pity we didn’t play either Argentina or New Zealand, the only other sides who appear to be on top form in world rugby. Pretty much everything we take from these games has been positive and it’s such a rare and fantastic feeling to be so confident about our team lining out against any comers.

Six Nations ? Bring it on.

Ireland: G Dempsey, L Fitzgerald, B O’Driscoll, S Horgan, D Hickie, P Wallace, P Stringer; B Young, F Sheahan, J Hayes, M O’Kelly, P O’Connell, S Easterby, SD Ferris, J Heaslip. Replacements: R Best, S Best, D O’Callaghan, D Leamy, I Boss, R O’Gara, G D’Arcy.

Pacific Islands: N Ligairi, L Fa’atau, S Rabeni, E Seveali’i, K Ratuvou; T Pisi, M Rauluni; J Va’aHale A Lutui, T Taumoepeau, D Leo, S Raiwalui (capt), N Latu, M Molitika, T-Pole. Replacements: M Schwalger, T Felise, E Taione, A Ratuva, J Poluleuligaga, S Mapasua, A Tuilagi.

Referee: Christophe Berdos (France)

Ireland ‘s first half performance reaped two superb tries and a half-time standing ovation from a sell-out Lansdowne Road crowd. Dominating all statistics, and forcing Australia onto the back foot, it was a joy to watch (unless you’re Australian) despite the gale force conditions and rain. The 21 – 6 victory unofficially puts Ireland second place in the world, whatever the International Rugby Board world rankings. The Rugby World Cup cannot come too soon – let’s hope we can hold this form!

Update:

• Ireland – Australia highlights video (8 mins, 28MB) from skelp.ie or YouTube version (3 mins, low bandwidth)
• IRB has updated it’s rankings and Ireland is in 3rd place, to New Zealand 1st and France 2nd (sure they are!) as of 20/Nov/06
• Read plenty of match reports via Google News

Latest IRB rankings:

1. New Zealand 94.59 points
2. France 85.86
3. Ireland 84.68
4. Australia 84.63
5. South Africa 83.83
6. Argentina 79.70
7. England 79.55
8. Scotland 77.72
9. Wales 77.02
10. Samoa 73.86

Ireland – Australia: Teams
Ireland: 15-Geordan Murphy (22-Girvan Dempsey 80), 14-Shane Horgan, 13-Brian O’Driscoll (captain), 12-Gordon D’Arcy, 11-Denis Hickie; 10-Ronan O’Gara, 9-Isaac Boss (20-Peter Stringer 73); 8-Denis Leamy, 7-David Wallace, 6-Neil Best (19-Simon Easterby 63), 5-Paul O’Connell (18-Malcolm O’Kelly 76), 4-Donncha O’Callaghan, 3-John Hayes, 2-Rory Best (16-Frankie Sheahan 76), 1-Bryan Young (17-Marcus Horan 63, Young 76)

Australia: 15-Chris Latham; 14-Clyde Rathbone (22-Scott Staniforth 68), 13-Lote Tuqiri, 12-Stirling Mortlock (captain), 11-Mark Gerrard; 10-Stephen Larkham (21-Mat Rogers 29), 9-Matt Giteau (20-Josh Valentine 80); 8-Wycliff Palu (19-George Smith 51), 7-Phil Waugh, 6-Rocky Elsom, 5-Mark Chisholm (18-Al Campbell 78), 4-Nathan Sharpe, 3-Guy Shepherdson (Baxter 80), 2-Tai McIsaac (16-Stephen Moore 58) 1-Al Baxter (17-Benn Robinson 40)

Referee: Marius Jonker (South Africa)

 Update:

• Highlights video (8 mins, 30 MB) available from skelp.ie or on YouTube (8 mins, size unknown)

It was a bit of an anti-climax at Lansdowne Road this evening, with Ireland dominating from start to finish. My prediction was too pessimistic, final score was 32-15 in our favour.

It was an extremely windy night, it was interesting to watch the flags in the gusts. At the north end of the ground, it was a strong westerly. High above I could see the clouds racing with a rapid southerly wind. And above the south terrace we saw a violent easterly wind – when the flags weren’t flying vertically!

Ireland underlined their Rugby World Cup credentials by notching up a handsome 32-15 victory over South Africa at Lansdowne Road in Dublin on Saturday.

The margin did not flatter Ireland, who weathered an initial storm, and then produced phases of devastating running to blow away the South African resistance far more effectively than the wind that whipped into the tourists’ faces during the conclusive first half.

It was a Test match for South Africa to commemorate 100 years playing in the Springbok jersey, but the Boks of yesteryear will surley be turning in their graves after the visitors appalling display.

South Africa never once had a stranglehold on the game that was marred by too many silly penalties, heaps of turnovers and ruined opportunities.

Not taking anything away from a superb Irish performance that left the former world champions scratching their heads for the majority of the match.

Report: Planet Rugby

BBC Sport: Ireland 32-15 South Africa.

I’m heading in to Lansdowne Road to steward at the Ireland – South Africa game. I’m calling an 8 point victory for Ireland, something like 25 – 17. I’ll be back later with some pictures. We’ll see how my prediction does 🙂

Wales 29 – 29 Australia

Fantastic opening match of the Autumn series here in the northern hemisphere with a superbly entertaining performance from both sides. The rugby wasn’t always perfect with a couple of mistakes in the last 10 minutes as energy levels were exhausted, but overall each team performed in a way I’d be proud to see Ireland to reproduce.

Although Larkham was a fair choice for man of the match, my choice was Martyn Williams who had a brilliant game.

It was interesting in the post-match interviews to see how gutted the Aussies were – they had hoped to win 7/7 of their games up here. Tough luck lads 🙂 It always amazes me how high scoring rugby matches can end in a draw – with so many different scoring combinations it seems impossible. For these 2 teams, this was the first draw in their 98 game history.
If the rest of the autumn series is to this standard we’re going to enjoy some great rugby!