Ireland have fallen to third in the latest World Rugby rankings after their Six Nations defeat to France on Saturday.
After winning the opening three fixtures in the Championship, Simon Easterby’s side were chasing a Grand Slam but a 42-27 defeat to France that not only ended their hopes have saw them surrender second place in the rankings.
The first half of the Six Nations clash at the Aviva Stadium proved to be incredibly tight with Ireland leading 13-8 at halftime.
However, the second-half was largely one-way traffic despite the injury to France captain Antoine Dupont who is now set for a 6-8 month spell on the sidelines.
Tries from Paul Boudehent, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Oscar Jegou, and Damian Penaud gave France a 13-42 lead in the final five minutes of the match.
Had France held onto that lead until the final whistle, they would have surpassed Ireland and moved into third place on the World Rugby rankings. However, tries from Cian Healy and Jack Conan reduced France’s lead with Sam Prendergast crucially converting both tries.
The extra two points on the latter’s score meant that Ireland lost by exactly 15 points. Had Prendergast not converted that try, Ireland would have dropped from second to fourth in the rankings with France moving ahead of the defending Six Nations champions.
France missed out on the opportunity to be ranked above Ireland for the first time since July 2022, the same month in which the Irish were last ranked as low as fourth. Instead, Ireland drop just one place with New Zealand now moving up to second place behind South Africa.
Elsewhere in the Six Nations, England gained a maximum of 0.11 rating points for beating Italy 47-24 at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham. That was not enough for Steve Borthwick’s men to improve on their sixth-place ranking. Italy’s loss of 0.11 rating points saw their buffer offer Georgia slip to 3.2 points.
Meanwhile, Scotland did not earn any rating points for their victory over Wales due to the difference in their ratings before home advantage was weighted in.
While New Zealand have now moved into second place, South Africa still hold a 2.42 rating buffer over their fiercest rivals before they kick off their respective 2025 international seasons.
World Rugby rankings (As of 10/03/2024)
1 South Africa 92.78
2 New Zealand 90.36
3 Ireland 89.71
4 France 89.51
5 Argentina 84.97
6 England 84.37
7 Scotland 82.99
8 Australia 81.52
9 Fiji 80.07
10 Italy 78.67
