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The Springboks in a huddle. Photo: SA Rugby website

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World Rugby rankings: Springboks could move up this weekend!

The Springboks could move up to third place in the World Rugby rankings if some results go in their favour this weekend.

04-08-23 14:21
World Rugby rankings
The Springboks in a huddle. Photo: SA Rugby website

Notably, every team competing at the 2023 Rugby World Cup is in action this weekend – with the exception of Georgia and Portugal. The Springboks will be taking on Argentina in Buenos Aires, and there is everything to play for.

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Besides the fact that Saturday’s match is a crucial World Cup warm-up game for the Springboks, there are also a lot of interesting World Rugby rankings permutations.

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Check out the full list of fixtures for this weekend below:

An action-packed weekend of World Cup warm-up games. Photo: SuperSport

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France and South Africa could become the world’s top two sides, with Ireland and New Zealand falling to third and fourth, but it would take an unexpected set of results for that to happen.

In addition to a France victory, South Africa would need to beat Argentina by more than 15 points at the Vélez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires and hope that Ireland and New Zealand lose at home by the same margin.

Now that’s not going to happen, but South Africa could replace RWC 2023 hosts France in third if they win and Les Bleus lose – as long as the margin in one of the games is more than 15 points.

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The current rankings. Photo: World Rugby

HOW THE SPRINGBOKS AND ARGENTINA WILL LINE UP

Springboks – 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Franco Mostert, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Bongi Mbonambi (c), 1 Trevor Nyakane.
Subs: 16 Joseph Dweba, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Jean-Luc du Preez, 20 Evan Roos, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Jesse Kriel, 23 Kurt-Lee Arendse.

Argentina – 15 Martin Bogado, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Santiago Cordero, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Santiago Grondona, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Pedro Rubiolo, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Julian Montoya (c) 1 Thomas Gallo.
Subs: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Joel Sclavi, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Facundo Isa, 21 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 22 Tomas Albornoz, 23 Matias Moroni.

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