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The World Rugby rankings determine which international side is considered the world’s best.
New Zealand often dominate the standings, while Wales have, at times, overtaken Ireland and England in the last year as the best performers from the northern hemisphere. The rankings are updated every Monday (European time).
Current World Rugby Rankings
Position
Team
Points
1
South Africa
94.19
2
New Zealand
92.11
3
England
87.41
4
Ireland
83.91
5
France
82.73
6
Wales
82.64
7
Australia
81.90
8
Scotland
80.68
9
Japan
79.28
10
Argentina
78.31
11
Fiji
76.21
12
Italy
73.07
13
Georgia
72.70
14
Tonga
71.44
15
Samoa
70.72
16
USA
68.10
17
Uruguay
67.41
18
Spain
67.14
19
Romania
65.36
20
Russia
62.13
To see the complete rankings for all 103 international rugby sides, head over to World Rugby’s website.
(Photo by Renee McKay/Getty Images)
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.
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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.
The one exception to this is Rugby World Cup games, for which the points exchange is doubled.
