Men’s World Rugby Union International Rankings

See the latest men’s World Rugby Rankings right here at RugbyPass. Below you’ll find the live rankings, as well as tables showing the biggest movers following the latest round of action.

So, scroll to see the rugby rankings and plot your team’s route to the coveted world #1 spot.

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What are the World Rugby Men’s Rankings?

The World Rugby Rankings, formerly known as the IRB World Rankings, is a ranking system used for national teams in rugby union. It’s managed by World Rugby, the governing body for the sport of rugby union.

All full member unions of World Rugby feature in the rankings, which are used as a popular barometer to measure a team’s fortunes. Only Test matches between full member unions count towards the rankings.

How do they work?

The rankings take into account the relative strength of the opposing teams and other factors such as home advantage before working out how many points, if any, are riding on the outcome. This is also dependent on the scoreline, with a team winning by more than 15 points gaining more than, if for example, they edge a close match, 9-6.

The rankings use a points exchange system, so the winning team’s rating will increase and the losing teams rating will decrease in equal measure in matches where points are awarded.

More recent results and more significant matches are weighted more heavily, with double the points awarded in Rugby World Cup matches, for example. Three points is the most that a team can pick up outside of a Rugby World Cup, whereas in-tournament that rises to six.

When were the World Rugby Men’s Rankings Introduced?

The men’s World Rugby Men’s Rankings were first introduced in October 2003. Then, they were known as the IRB World Rankings.

England were the first team to claim the world #1 spot. But since, the rankings have been heavily dominated by the All Blacks, who claimed the top spot for a record 509 consecutive weeks between November 2009 and August 2019.

Since the World Rugby Men’s Rankings were first introduced, England, France, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Wales have all held the top spot at least once.