Japan celebrate their victory over South Africa. Photo / Getty Images
The Herald's Dylan Cleaver ranks the 20 nations at the Rugby World Cup following the first weekend of results.
It was tempting to drop them down a place after their almighty struggle with Argentina but it would have been misguided. After the first weekend of matches, whose fearsomely black boots would you rather be in? Exactly. This was a marvelously committed and defensively accurate Pumas' defence and yet the All Blacks racked up 543m* on the ground and 12 clean breaks. On another day, that could have been six, not two, tries.
It's been said that England got out of jail against Fiji in the Cup opener thanks only to their bench. Hello? Check out the team at No 1 on these rankings. With 191m and two tries, fullback Mike Brown was, along with Nemani Nadolo, the most dangerous player on the park. Most of those metres came late. This will be England's modus operandi - subjugate, then dominate.
Just a Rizla's width between second and fifth on these rankings. If Canada had offered anything other than mild resistance, the men in green might have earned second spot. This game was over as soon as Canuck skipper Jamie Cudmore got himself sent to the bin - a 21-point sanction as it turned out. Ireland made a whopping 732m and threw 212 passes, but it would have been the 17 turnovers that concerned coach Joe Schmidt the most.
There is a clear first and second in Pool D and it looks like a coin toss between them. France bludgeoned Italy into submission at Twickenham in a disappointing, Craig Joubert-dominated, match. There were 36 penalties dished out - 19 against the clueless Italians - but France were always on top, sometimes ferociously so. French flair might be a thing of the past but there is no shortage of Gallic might and power.
Probably a touch low here, but they haven't played yet and watching the way the scrums were patrolled in the weekend makes you wonder if Australia's perceived weakness in that setpiece - even if it doesn't match reality under Michael Cheika - might come back to haunt them at some stage. Watching Wales dispatch Uruguay by playing a setpiece game was like watching a live training for their clash with Australia on October 11 (NZT).
The most impressive part of Los Pumas' 10-point loss to the All Blacks was the fact it didn't look like they'd got above their station. They are a very good side and as long as they can channel the defensive fury they displayed against New Zealand they will qualify easily from Pool C and then it will be all on for young and old in a quarter-final presumably against either Ireland or France. Leonardo Senatore is a beast.
The Welsh are the most perplexing team to rank. The suspicion is they're too high as they will be at longish odds to make it out of Pool A, particularly after accruing more injuries to an already troubling toll. However, Rankings is a long-time admirer of Warren Gatland's brain and there had to be a reason why they persisted in flexing their setpiece muscles against mighty... Uruguay. They won the lineouts 25-5 and took six scrums off the South Americans. Woo-hoo.
They must be favourites to win Pool B now, a sentence that felt silly even typing it. They've played nine tests in 2015 and won two, they haven't played a game yet at this tournament and yet, courtesy of Japan, they're sitting pretty. These are seriously strange days.
Excuse Rankings while it first gets something off its chest: bwahaha, bwahahaha, bwahahahaha. Right, analysis time. There's a good chance South Africa are going to make a few teams pay now and should sneak out of Pool B. To be frank, however, winning the tournament is the only way they're going to silence the guffaws. Here are a
, courtesy of Sport24.
This has been Fumiaki Tanaka's past 12 months: he won the Super rugby title with the highlanders, a team that had never won the competition before; he played his 50th test for his country; he became a
Joe Wheeler and Marty Banks; he played for the Barbarians; and he was part of a Cherry Blossoms team that beat South Africa. If the guy isn't buying Lotto tickets, he should.
They were OK in beating the USA at Brighton, but given the drama at that ground the previous day, OK is just meh. Pool B is wide open now and you have to think their next clash, against a wounded Springbok side at Birmingham's Villa Park, is going to be one for the ages. If they can hold their own physically - not just in the opening exchanges, but through the 80 - they've seen how vulnerable this Bok team is.
Poor old Mamuka Gorgodze and his swarthy collections of Lelos. They were all set to be the story of the weekend after upsetting Tonga at Gloucester's intimate Kingsholme, but then Japan came along. They won despite making just 210m on an anaemic 59 carries; they won because they made more than 200 tackles. Who knows if they've fired all their bullets, but if so, it was fun watching while it lasted.
It feels a bit unfair in hindsight, because England are a global rugby powerhouse, but Rankings was desperately disappointed with Fiji's insipid opening display. There were times that England's dysfunction was inviting Fiji to attack, but their tactics seemed to be almost Crusader-like: get the ball to Nadolo and hope. He beat seven English defenders, the rest of the team beat eight in total. Oh, and goalkicking is an issue.
Where the world might have seen a relatively predictable loss to Samoa, Rankings saw hope. The US have always been a boring, fairly predictable team, but in Brighton they looked better when they departed from the script. The first half try to Chris Wyles was a beauty and they pretty much matched there more vaunted counterparts for carries, breaks and passes. In other words, they're starting to ally rugby skills to athleticism.
Wow, 15 years in the Six Nations and that schemozzle against France is the best you can come up with? No inspiration, no rugby intelligence and, perhaps surprisingly, no scrum. That privileged Six Nations foothold is a farce. Perhaps World Rugby should think about starting a second division including Georgia, Romania, Spain, Portugal and Russia and have a one-up, one-down promotion-relegation system.
The rest: 16. Tonga (11) 17. Romania (nc) 18. Canada (nc) 19. Uruguay (nc) 20. Namibia (nc)
* All stats provided by Opta
Former All Blacks' frustrations began before he coached his first All Blacks test.