England had the Calcutta Cup wrenched off them on the same week that centre Ben Te’o boldly proclaimed that his side’s storied history against Scotland was “irrelevant” to him.
Bold words but Te’o will have to live with them for a while yet after the Scots blew England off the Murrayfield pitch on Saturday.
After years upon years of agony against their greatest enemy, Scotland handed Eddie Jones only his second loss as England coach and pitched themselves right into the championship picture.
They also gave themselves a massive world rankings boost.
What a feeling!!!! Freeeeeeedom! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/l1JpvOhUCz
— ryan wilson (@ryanwilson89) February 25, 2018
Gregor Townsend’s side are now up to 5th in the world, leapfrogging Wales and South Africa, after their win got them 1.49 rankings points.
England gave up those 1.49 points but remain in second. However, Ireland are closer to England than they have been in almost two years. Joe Schmidt’s side gained 0.36 ranking points from beating Wales and are now just two points off the English.
New Zealand, on 93.99, remain a country mile ahead but two more Ireland victories could yet see them breach the 90-point mark. The rankings will be officially released on Monday afternoon but this is how they will look:
WORLD RANKINGS (February 25th 2018)
Ireland face Scotland at home next and a win in that fixture [without a bonus point] would get them another 0.31 points. It would also tee them up for a Grand Slam game against England, in Twickenham, on March 17.
The main motivation for Ireland would, of course, be to secure the championship and Grand Slam in London. Asked about the potential Slam, on Saturday, Ireland captain Rory Best played it sensibly safe:
“We don’t look beyond the next game, it’s boring and cliched. It’s good that we don’t do that. It is all about the next game, how we can recover and prepare for it.”
Defeat England in that final game, though, and Ireland would overtake them to achieve their joint-best ever world ranking of second.
A win at England’s rugby HQ would give Ireland 1.70 ranking points and see England lose the same amount.
Ireland reached second back in August 2015, ahead of the World Cup, but fell back to sixth before they beat New Zealand at Soldier Field, in November 2016.
