Nightmare draw avoided with vital top eight ranking

DECLAN KIDNEY likened Saturday’s 17-3 win over Argentina to a cup final. It certainly was, and for a reason: Ireland fought for their lives to avoid a potentially nightmarish 2011 World Cup draw, and in the end the win was all about the result.

The victory assured Ireland eighth spot in the IRB World Rankings, and Kidney’s side go into the pot for the RWC draw as one of the four second-seeded teams.

That RWC 2011 Pool Allocation Draw takes place on December 1 in London, when for the first time the IRB World Rankings will be used to seed the 12 teams which qualified automatically from the 2007 tournament in France.