When you take into account that they change every other day, the rugby world rankings are not exactly the greatest measure of sustained success or failure. What they do give however, is the chance to rub salt in the wounds after particularly painful defeats.
Ireland and England were battling it out for second place behind New Zealand not too long ago but both sides have dropped back and England's second consecutive loss at the Rugby World Cup has resulted in the ignominy of slipping all the way down to the eight position in the rankings with Scotland breathing down their necks.
Posted by World Rugby on Monday, October 5, 2015
Ireland have slipped back one place after our less than impressive win over Italy and South Africa's resurgence in Pool B. Not ideal, but at least we're still in with a chance of improving our position over the next few weeks.
