World Rugby Rankings: Up-to-date international rugby standings

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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.

Ireland’s heavy Six Nations loss to France saw them fall to third in the rankings, behind New Zealand.

England jumped over Scotland into sixth on the table with their stunning win over France at the start of the tournament; Wales, meanwhile, hit a new low after an embarrassing loss to Italy, slumping to 12th below minnows Georgia.

France remain in fourth despite winning the tournament.

Current World Rugby Rankings

Position	Team	Points
1	South Africa	92.78
2	New Zealand	90.36
3	Ireland	89.83
4	France	89.51
5	Argentina	84.97
6	England	84.73
7	Scotland	82.36
8	Australia	81.52
9	Fiji	80.07
10	Italy	77.77
11	Georgia	74.69
12	Wales	73.39
13	Japan	72.95
14	Samoa	72.68
15	USA	70.02
16	Portugal	68.30
17	Spain	67.34
18	Uruguay	67.06
19	Tonga	65.46
20	Romania	62.76

To see the complete rankings for all 105 international rugby sides, head over to World Rugby’s website.

Aaron Smith — (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.

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.