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Angus Bell of the Wallabies (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The World Rugby rankings determine which international side is considered the world’s best.
Fiji’s stunning upset over England has seen major changes to the rankings list just weeks out from the World Cup.
The Pacific Island nation has jumped up to seventh, above both England and Australia, with the Wallabies falling all the way to ninth ahead of their clash with France.
The All Blacks’ record 35-7 loss to the Springboks – their heaviest ever defeat – has seen them fall from second to fourth in the rankings, while South Africa jumped from third to second.
Current World Rugby Rankings
Position
Team
Points
1
Ireland
91.82
2
South Africa
91.08
3
France
89.22
4
New Zealand
89.06
5
Scotland
84.01
6
Argentina
80.86
7
Fiji
80.28
8
England
79.95
9
Australia
79.87
10
Wales
78.26
11
Georgia
76.23
12
Samoa
76.19
13
Italy
75.63
14
Japan
73.29
15
Tonga
70.29
16
Portugal
68.61
17
Uruguay
66.63
18
USA
66.22
19
Romania
64.56
20
Spain
64.05
To see the complete rankings for all 105 international rugby sides, head over to World Rugby’s website.
(Photo by Renee McKay/Getty Images)
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The rankings explained
The World Rugby Rankings operate using a points exchange system, where two teams will exchange points following a game against each other. That is, the losing team’s points total will be reduced by the same amount that the winning side’s is increased by.
Each side has a points rating almost always ranging from 0-100, with the no.1 side in the world often ranked between 90-100.
A range of factors impact the number of points exchanged following each match, including each side’s ranking going into the match, the location of the game – to take into account home ground advantage – and the margin of the result.
Home ground advantage to is taken into account by ‘handicapping’ the home side – their ranking is given three additional points for the purpose of comparing the relative strength of the two sides.
If the margin of victory exceeds 15 points, then the points exchanged between the side is multiplied by 1.5.
All international matches are given the same weighting as each other for ranking purposes – so a Bledisloe Cup game is given no more weighting than a match between Georgia and Italy, for example – so as to not disadvantage those sides who don’t have access to rugby’s biggest tournaments.
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The one exception to this is Rugby World Cup games, for which the points exchange is doubled.
