Boks were shocking in 2016 - Lood

Springboks are the biggest losers in top 10 of world rugby rankings

South Africa's once-proud Springbok rugby team are languishing at sixth place on the latest world rugby rankings‚ to equal their lowest position since the rankings were introduced - and potentially put SA in a collision course with the mighty All Blacks in a pool at the next World Cup.

Issuing the latest rankings this week after a busy round of internationals‚ the World Rugby organisation said: "Ireland and Scotland both gained ground from a rankings perspective‚ while South Africa were the biggest losers in the top 10 as the jockeying for positions ahead of next May’s Rugby World Cup 2019 draw intensified over the November period".

If the pools were drawn now‚ New Zealand (currently ranked one)‚ England (two)‚ Australia (three) and Ireland (four) would be kept apart as they are ranked as the top four seeds among the 12 direct qualifiers from RWC 2015.

With four pools of five teams‚ each top seed is drawn with a side ranked fifth to eighth and then one from ninth to 12th. The ­remaining eight teams are drawn from two further bands.

This means that‚ as things stand‚ it is possible that reigning world champions New Zealand‚ who celebrated their seven-year anniversary as the world’s top ranked team during November‚ could be drawn alongside two of last year's Rugby World Cup semi-finalists - South Africa and Argentina.

• Lions’ Springboks wing to miss Super Rugby with shoulder injury 

Here's how the top 10 teams shaped up over the November window from a rankings perspective.

*Pre-November rankings in brackets

1. New Zealand (1) Down 1.79 points

The All Blacks rallied well after their record 18-match winning run came to an end with defeat against Ireland (40-29) in Chicago‚ beating Italy (68-10)‚ Ireland (21-9) and France (24-19). Nevertheless‚ over the course of the month their lead at the top of the rankings was cut from 7.08 points to 4.32.

2. England (2) Up 0.97 points

There was no stopping Eddie Jones’ men as wins over South Africa (37-21)‚ Fiji (58-15)‚ Argentina (27-14) and Australia (37-21) took them past the 90-point mark in the rankings and equalled their best-ever run of 14 straight victories.

3. Australia (3) Up 1.02 points

The Wallabies marginally improved their rating points despite losing two of their five internationals in Europe. After opening with an emphatic win over Wales (32-8)‚ Michael Cheika’s men repeated their one-point win over Scotland in the RWC 2015 quarter-final with a 23-22 victory and then edged France 25-23. But any hopes of a Grand Slam were dashed when they lost to Ireland (27-24)‚ before a long season ended with a 37-21 defeat at Twickenham.

4. Ireland (6) Up 2.95 points

The biggest mover in terms of points and positions gained. A first-ever victory over the All Blacks set the tone for a wonderful campaign which also yielded wins against Canada (52-21) and Australia (27-24)‚ the latter result a fine way for captain Rory Best to mark his 100th cap for Ireland. The only blot on their copybook was the 21-9 loss to the All Blacks in Dublin.

• SA Rugby refuses to publicly back Springbok coach in Parliament 

5. Wales (5) Up 0.06 points

Wales gained six hundredths of a point over the course of a campaign that produced three wins out of four but did little to silence the critics. Rob Howley’s men responded to the heavy defeat to Australia with hard-fought wins over Argentina (24-20) and Japan (33-30) before seeing off South Africa for only the third time in their history‚ 27-13.

6. South Africa (4) Down 3.06 points

A difficult campaign that saw South Africa suffer three straight losses after kicking off their tour with an entertaining 31-31 draw against the Barbarians at Twickenham. Defeats to England (37-21) and Wales (27-13) came either side of a first-ever loss to Italy (20-18) and resulted in the Springboks dropping to sixth to equal their lowest position since the rankings were introduced in October 2003.

7. Scotland (8) Up 0.23 points

The Scots climbed up to seventh‚ their highest position for five years‚ after an encouraging November campaign that brought wins over Argentina (19-16) and Georgia (43-16) following the heartache of the near-miss against Australia.

8. France (7) Down 0.62 points

Even though Les Bleus lost a bit of ground in the rankings‚ they will take heart from their performances in November. A clinical display of finishing saw them put 50 points on Samoa before the southern hemisphere’s top two‚ Australia (25-23) and New Zealand (24-19)‚ were pushed to the limit.

9. Argentina (9) Down 0.40 points

The travel-weary Los Pumas hung onto ninth spot in the rankings despite losing four-tenths of a point across the month. A crushing 54-20 win against a inexperienced Japan side was followed by tight defeats to Wales (24-20) and Scotland (19-16) before their tour came to an end with a 27-14 loss to England.

• Springboks slump to yet another defeat  

10. Fiji (10th) Up 1.03 points

The reigning World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup champions made up for heavy defeats to the Barbarians (40-7) and England (58-15) to win the one that really mattered‚ against Japan‚ where defeat to the Brave Blossoms in the French town of Vannes would have cost them their place in the world’s top 10. Two tries from Levani Botia helped them secure a 38-25 victory.

And‚ just for South African interest after the Boks lost to them‚ here's what the world rugby organisation has to say about Japan:

11. Japan (12) Up 0.73 points

Jamie Joseph’s first run of matches in charge of the Brave Blossoms produced a mixed bag of results as the New Zealander tried out new combinations and blooded a lot of young players. Japan rallied well after the loss to Los Pumas to end Georgia’s seven-match unbeaten run at home with a creditable 28-22 victory in Tbilisi. Only Sam Davies’ last-gasp drop goal prevented them drawing with Wales before they lost out to Fiji in their final fixture.

Springbok lock Lood de Jager slammed both his own form and his teammates in 2016 as “shocking” and called for players to take more responsibility for last year’s poor international season.

The uncharacteristically honest assessment isn’t always seen in players, but De Jager remains one of the few straight talkers in the modern game who is more than willing to put his hand up and take responsibility for some poor form that led to the Springboks winning only four of 12 tests last season.

The results have placed Bok rugby at an all-time low, losing to Argentina and Italy during the season and put coach Allister Coetzee under immense pressure to find solutions or be replaced by SA Rugby.

But De Jager, who has looked exceptionally fit as compared to last season, spoke candidly at the Vodacom Bulls practice session at Loftus Versfeld about the Boks 2016 season, saying there was way too much “blame-shifting” going around.

“Firstly the players need to take responsibility for last year. I think there is too much blame-shifting from the players’ side,” De Jager said.

“Look, everything is not right everywhere, but as players, we dropped ourselves, we dropped our coaches. We dropped the country last year.

“We were shocking as players. We made a lot of mistakes, we had a clear plan every weekend. We just didn’t execute it.

“I put my hand up there first. There were a lot of handling errors, a lot of system errors that we made and I think we weren’t hard enough on each other.

“That is why we had a terrible season.”

De Jager dismissed talk of little experience in the team following the World Cup, praising outgoing captain Adriaan Strauss for his contribution and admitting that players should have contributed more in the season.

“We didn’t have a lot of experience, but Adriaan and the guys who were there made a massive contribution as leaders,” he explained.

“That wasn’t the problem. We didn’t take enough responsibility as players. As young players you need to have as much responsibility as the captain has.

“You can’t just be there, think you are young and try and do the things you want to. You need to fit into the system, and take responsibility for your role and your job.”

De Jager is looking forward to a much better 2017 season, and has closed the door on 2016 – where he said he had placed too much pressure on himself mentally after winning the 2015 SA Rugby Player of the year award.

“I was overtrained. I put a lot of pressure on myself and I only took a week off after the 2015 World Cup. I played Barbarians, then took a week off and then went straight into a pre-season,” De Jager explained.

“I was tired last year. I told the guys last year that at times before I sat in the changeroom, my legs would be lam (tired). I was tired. I couldn’t get going.

I put way too much pressure on myself and I was mentally exhausted. This year I got away from the game, recharged my batteries and these days if I take a break, have an off day, then I am off, then I don’t think of the game and try and get away.

“Right now I feel good, I feel it will be a very good year for me.”

Wedding bells chimed for the big lock in the off-season, and the change in marital status seems to have given him a lot more enthusiasm for the season ahead.

“I rested. I got married, was on honeymoon and said to myself I wanted to get away from the game a bit. I wanted to recharge my batteries. It worked, and I feel good. I’m looking forward to the games ahead and I’m looking forward to training.

“ I know what I can do if I feel good and right now I feel good. I think it will be a very good year.”

De Jager is set to make his debut for the Vodacom Bulls in their second pre-season friendly against the Chiefs in Brisbane next month.

I referred to, and posted, this exact same scenario that Brycy has posted above last year sometime.

If the results don't go our way during the 6 nations,(Which we should never have had to rely on anyway), mark my words....... South Africa will end up in  8th spot on the IRB world rugby rankings.

The english coach is working in that direction, he keeps  promoting his side so it sells.

He is a salesman as much as he is a coach.

Sporting event business is about selling sporting events.

This goes with marketing.

The paper is a marketing piece. It is written to keep everyone in the game.

I disagree

The English coach does not have to do much to sell or market his current side that is close to emulating, if not bettering, the record of consecutive wins, if they carry on the way they have been playing, especially with a 6N coming up.

Winning 4 out of 12 tests, try what the hell you want, you will see the numbers dwindling despite any marketing campaign you throw at it