All Blacks top after again Wales lose

The All Blacks are back on top of World Rugby’s rankings after previous leaders Wales’ 22-17 home loss to Ireland.

Wales dropped to fourth place behind New Zealand, Ireland and England after losing to Ireland in Cardiff yesterday.

If the All Blacks beat Tonga by 15 points or more in their final warmup game next weekend they will go to the Rugby World Cup as the No 1 ranked team in the world.

The world rankings came under fire last week when World Rugby vice-president Agustin

Gatland said wanted to ‘‘send a big thank you to everyone in Wales’’.

‘‘It’s a special nation. The people are very passionate and very kind. It will have a really special place in my heart.

‘‘It’s a nation of 3.3 million people and I think we’ve Pichot slammed the system as ‘‘ridiculous’’.

That prompted Wales coach Warren Gatland – who fielded an under-strength team against Ireland – to joke that Wales were happy to give up their No 1 ranking.

Joe Schmidt’s Irish were in desperation mode after enduring a 57-15 thrashing from England last weekend at Twickenham and responded by pulling ahead 22-3 in Cardiff thanks to a penalty try off their dominant scrum nearly an hour in.

Wales then began their own massively over-achieved in what we’ve done in the last 12 years.’’

Gatland said of his team: ‘‘We’re not finished yet. If we’re mentally and physically right, we’re capable of beating anyone in the world.

‘‘I honestly believe we’ll go a long way at this World Cup.’’ comeback, after prop Leon Brown came out of the sin-bin, with tries to wing Owen Lane on debut and replacement first five-eighth Rhys Patchell, who converted both and engineered the fightback.

Schmidt made 11 changes, and first five-eighth Jack Carty starred with his vision and distribution. His offload to bursting wing Andrew Conway set up Jacob Stockdale’s first try, and Stockdale scored the second from a dropped Welsh offload.

‘‘[Winning] was massive for us,’’ Carty said. ‘‘We were all

In a pre-match feature, Wales Online hailed Gatland for the way he had rebuilt the shattered confidence of Welsh rugby after the demoralising 2007 World Cup tournament exit in a loss to Fiji.

‘‘In 2008, almost overnight, he took a team of players who’d just been humiliated in front of the world and twisted the fabric of their minds to make them believe they were the best team on the planet,’’ Wales Online said.

‘‘He’s always been able to psychologically manipulate a group of players and that has been the genius of Gatland.’’

Warren Gatland, left after his final home game in charge of Wales

hurting during the week but we came together. It wasn’t perfect at times but our defence was good.’’

After a pushover attempt was rewarded with a penalty try by referee Romain Poite, Ireland led by 22-3. If the margin had held, Ireland would have strangely become No 1 for the first time, a week after a thrashing from England.

Gatland made 14 changes to the side which beat England 13-6 in Cardiff two weeks ago to earn the top ranking for the first time.

The teams meet again next weekend in Dublin.