All Blacks Breathe Down Springboks' Necks as World Rugby Gap Shrinks to 0.44 Points

South Africa are still the best team in the world, officially at least. But if you listen closely this Monday morning, you can hear the All Blacks coming.

The latest World Rugby men's rankings have cut the Springboks' lead over New Zealand to just 0.44 points — 93.09 to 92.65 — after a Nations Championship weekend that rewarded one of them and not the other. Both teams won. Only one of them gained anything from it.

That is the strange arithmetic of the rankings. South Africa ran in ten tries to hammer an injury-hit Italy 66-7 in Turin, a performance that would have been a statement in any other week, and got nothing for it — not a single ranking point, because the gap between the sides was already so wide that anything less than a miracle was priced in. New Zealand, meanwhile, picked up 0.38 points for beating Scotland 43-21 at Murrayfield, and suddenly the cushion at the top that looked so comfortable is barely there at all.

It was a weekend that belonged, on the whole, to the north. Four wins for the northern hemisphere sides, two for the south, and the chasing pack all moved. Ireland, third on 88.70 points after their 42-12 win over Argentina in Dublin, picked up 0.63. France and England, fourth and fifth, both edged upward after emphatic wins over Fiji and Australia — England gaining 1.31 points for their 45-22 rout of the Wallabies at Twickenham, the biggest haul of the weekend. Scotland, Australia, Argentina and Fiji all lost ground, while Wales strengthened their place in the top ten with 0.99 points for a hard-fought 28-21 win over Japan in Cardiff.

Below the top ten there was plenty of movement too. Spain climbed to 16th on the back of their 18-12 win over Uruguay, Tonga rose two places to 17th after beating Romania 43-38 away, and Samoa moved up after their 43-7 win over Zimbabwe. Romania, for their part, slipped to an all-time low of 23rd.

For Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks, the message is simple: the perfect record — four wins from four in the Nations Championship, 20 points, a points difference of plus 140 — is no longer enough to keep the chasing pack at arm's length. The rankings do not care how many tries you score against Italy. They care about who you beat and by how much, and right now New Zealand are collecting just enough, week after week, to make the summit a genuine contest again.

The next round will decide whether this is a wobble or a changing of the guard. South Africa's lead is still a lead, and they remain the team everyone else is chasing. But 0.44 points is nothing — one result, one slip, one inspired afternoon from the All Blacks, and the top of world rugby changes hands. The race is well and truly on.