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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.
While a week of international warm-up Tests heading into the World Cup has seen plenty of movement on points tallies, the ratings of the top 10 have remained constant.
The Wallabies didn’t move an inch in their 23-20 loss to the All Blacks, remaining seventh and a point off the pace of Argentina in sixth, while New Zealand have some breathing space over France after their rating took a hit with a loss to Scotland.
Current World Rugby Rankings
Position
Team
Points
1
Ireland
91.82
2
New Zealand
90.77
3
France
89
4
South Africa
88.97
5
Scotland
84.24
6
England
81.01
7
Argentina
80.86
8
Australia
79.87
9
Wales
79.18
10
Fiji
78.70
11
Georgia
76.23
12
Samoa
76.19
13
Italy
74.63
14
Japan
74.29
15
Tonga
70.29
16
Portugal
67.62
17
USA
67.21
18
Uruguay
66.63
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)
The rankings explained
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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.
The one exception to this is Rugby World Cup games, for which the points exchange is doubled.
