World rankings slump adds to Kidney’s woes

Declan’s Kidney hopes of remaining Ireland coach suffered another devastating blow yesterday as the national slide slumped to their lowest ever position in the IRB World Rankings.

Kidney’s side have nowtumbled below Samoa andArgentina to ninth in the grid, marginally ahead of Scotland and Tonga.

Ireland’s previous lowest position was eighth, but it could have been worse than ninth had the Scots not slipped to a 23-16 loss to France at the Stade de France in the final RBS 6 Nations match of 2013.