Rugby World Cup 2023 men's teams' rankings update

It seems like https://www.world.rugby have actually calculated the rankings for the men's teams although the date is still 28 August 2023.

                          21st      28th  Difference  Rank

Ireland           91.82     91.82       0               1

NZ                   90.77     89.06     1.71         2 to 4

South Africa  89.37     91.08     1.71        3 to 2

France            89.22     89.22        0           4 to 3

France beat Australia 41-17 on Sunday 27th August which is 24 points difference.

South Africa beat New Zealand 35-7 on Friday 25th August which is 28 points difference.

4 points difference between the matches, 28-24.

It goes to show moving up the table seems hard, South Africa and France went up one place despite knocking the wind out of their opponents. When you think about it, purely from a numbers point of view, there are only 2.76 points between Ireland and New Zealand, which is nothing really.

My point on rankings still stands.

My one about the haka does too.

Come on France and New Zealand, you've got to be in the final, and play a fantastic match. No one would turn down the opportunity of watching that!

(And thinking a bit more deeply, who wouldn't love to see the All Blacks pick themselves up for a slamming opening match and preferably great, consistent games throughout the tournament.)

-A.M.