World Rankings

World Rugby Men’s Rankings powered by Capgemini given major shake-up

Argentina’s famous win over England at Twickenham and a host of other results in the Autumn Nations Series lead to changes in the world’s top 20.

Argentina have been rewarded for their 30-29 win over England at Twickenham on Sunday with a two-place rise in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings powered by Capgemini.

Los Pumas have climbed from eighth to sixth after receiving 1.80 points for the victory – only their second at Twickenham – and have overtaken Australia and Wales in the process.

New Zealand and Scotland were the other top 10 teams to improve their positions in victory, with the All Blacks moving up one place to third at South Africa’s expense following their convincing 55-23 win against Wales in Cardiff.

South Africa had gone to Dublin looking to knock Ireland off their perch at the top of the rankings, but the home side edged an epic test 19-16 and stay at number one.

Wales’ defeat combined with Argentina’s Twickenham triumph and Scotland’s 28-12 win over Fiji have sent Wayne Pivac’s side down to ninth, with the Scots moving in the opposite direction up to eighth.

Italy’s impressive 49-17 win over Samoa saw their rating boosted by 1.42 points, which was enough to send them up to 12th, above their beaten opponents and also Georgia, whose total remains unchanged as their 34-18 win over Uruguay did not come with any additional points.

Fiji climbed a place even in defeat as their revised rating of 74.85 points is still higher than Samoa’s.

Samoa’s heavy defeat at the hands of the Azzurri cost them 1.42 points which gives them a new score of 74.33 points.

A 40-6 win for Tonga over Spain saw the sides swap places with the ‘Ikale Tahi now the highest ranked of the two teams in 15th, one place below Samoa.

With Portugal and the USA both winning their opening matches in the Final Qualification Tournament for Rugby World Cup 2023, Os Lobos are now ranked above the Eagles in 19th.

Hong Kong’s 42-12 defeat to Portugal caused them to fall one place to 23rd with Canada the side to benefit.

Several matches also took place in the different tiers of Rugby Europe’s competition structure. 

The most significant from a rankings perspective was Switzerland’s opening fixture in the 2022/23 Trophy, which ended in a 69-12 win for the Swiss and a five-place rise to 29th.