A couple of weeks ago, Ireland were officially the second best team in the world and we were all very excited heading to the World Cup. We were looking ahead and New Zealand were the only team in our line of sight. Although we're being a bit facetious, that was the picture that the rankings painted with the key word there being 'was'.
Two defeats later, and things are looking significantly more crowded ahead of us. We calculated the rankings over the weekend and things were looking dodgy. Now, the official rankings are here and sure enough Ireland have slipped down to a lowly sixth.
There's no doubt that Saturday's loss to England has dampened expectations significantly and we're all fully in agreement that that is exactly what Joe Schmidt had planned. So there World Rugby, you can stick your rankings up your southern hemisphere.
