IRELAND WILL DROP from third to fourth in the official World Rugby rankings when the governing body updates the standings on Monday.
Joe Schmidt’s men could have taken over as world number one if things had gone very differently at Twickenham today, but they were unceremoniously beaten off the path to that perch by a powerful English display that yielded a record-breaking 57-15 win for the home side.
England went into their third Rugby World Cup warm-up match in the knowledge that only a convincing win would be enough to overtake Ireland in the rankings. And they powered through the 15-point margin with eight tries to inflict a humbling defeat on Ireland – who won a Grand Slam and ascended to second in the world on their last visit to the venue.
Ireland’s loss means Wales remain the number one team in the world after they pulled ahead of New Zealand last week. England’s rise from fifth to third means South Africa dip down to fifth.
Ireland’s first opponents in World Cup Pool A, Scotland, recorded a 17-14 win over France in Murrayfield. That outcome will move Gregor Townsend’s men into seventh and France into eighth.
Les Bleus will go to Japan to compete in Pool C where they will take on Argentina on opening weekend before closing the group stage against England in Yokohama.
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The league here needs to grow so that it provides a credible alternative to jumping to English league football at the first opportunity. I think we should follow the Dutch model and continue to emphasise technical ability, that for instance summer football does promote, onwards and upwards and hopefully we can hold onto and develop the Towell’s further. Nothing wrong with going over when the bucks are big obviously
@An_Beal_Bocht: you can never hold to the good players in the league when they don’t have decent contract or long term contracts.. A lot of players don’t get 12 month contracts only 9 can’t blame players for leaving to secure there future
@Irishoversea: couldn’t agree more, Irish. And by not giving the players longer contracts they’re also losing out on potential transfer fees. As for the players leaving LOI for the UK, it’s always going to happen because players will look at the Championship, League 1, etc. as stepping stones to the Premier League. It’s very rare for somebody to go straight there from the LOI and actually make it.
@Irishoversea: I agree with you fully, that’s why the league needs to be developed and supported. However it was interesting to read Trevor Molloy the other day and how he found the lower English leagues to be more about physicality and athleticism and less technical when compared to LOI and he was more than happy to play football in his hometown close to his family and friends
I think he will do very well if he goes out on loan to a championship team next season if he stays fit. He has been very unlucky with injuries this season
@Jordan Callaghan: He needs pick a team suit his style of football
Honeymoon over, Richie
Being honest I don’t think he was near to being Dundalks best player at the time. He scored a lot of goals but you wouldn’t see him for must of the game. In saying that he went over injured so he never had a chance at a good run of games. Plenty of talented players in the loi. Horgan is flying at Preston, all’s you need is a bit of luck.
@prop joe: The English scouts obviously saw something in him you didn’t Joe.
@prop joe: flying me whole. He started ,what two games? He should get into the team more starting next season though. On that note. Maybe preston would be the fit for towel
@William Motley: I’m pretty sure Horgan played around 20 league games from January, with over half being starts. He’s made a fairly big impact in a short space of time.
He’s made 12