3 up, 6 down as World Rankings get shaken up

Having gone into the weekend facing the prospect of falling to a 20-year rankings low, England will find themselves higher up the World Rugby Men’s Rankings when they are officially updated on Monday.

England’s record 73-8 hammering of Fiji combined with Scotland’s brave 42-28 defeat to the Springboks will result in the oldest of international rivals swapping places, with England now the side ranked fifth and Scotland in sixth.

Whilst those were the only positional changes to the top 10, the ranking scores of three of the other leading teams in addition to England – South Africa, France and Argentina – have also been improved by their results in the second round of The Nations Championship.

World number one South Africa’s score will go up by two-hundredths of a point, to increase their lead over New Zealand at the top to 2.92 points.

The All Blacks and Ireland, ranked second and third, won’t pick up any additional points for their respective wins over Italy and Japan, but France have been brought closer to the top three with their impressive 42-26 win over Australia earning them an extra 0.68 points.

Like France, Argentina overcame a slow start to beat Wales 35-21 and boost their score by 0.29 points. Wales will lose an identical amount in exchange, therefore placing them below Japan in 12th in the updated rankings.

The most eye-catching rankings change comes as a result of Spain’s 32-19 win over Tonga in the World Rugby Nations Cup, which will send Los Leones surging up the rankings by four places to 16th.

Uruguay, Chile, Samoa and Tonga will slip back a place.

World Rugby Men’s Rankings – Top 25

1. South Africa – 93.96 (-)
2. New Zealand – 91.04 (-)
3. Ireland – 89.32 (-)
4. France – 87.43 (-)
5. England – 84.75 (+1)
6. Scotland – 84.09 (-1)
7. Argentina – 84.06 (-)
8. Australia – 80.60 (-)
9. Fiji – 78.69 (-)
10. Italy – 77.31 (-)
11. Japan – 76.42 (+1)
12. Wales – 76.38 (-1)
13. Georgia – 73.30 (-)
14. USA – 69.40 (-)
15. Portugal – 68.67 (-)
16. Spain – 67.66 (+4)
17. Uruguay – 67.62 (-1)
18. Chile – 67.59 (-1)
19. Samoa – 66.27 (-1)
20. Tonga – 65.85 (-1)
21. Belgium – 61.03 (-)
22. Romania – 60.92 (-)
23. Canada – 59.46 (-)
24. Hong Kong China – 58.86 (-)
25. Zimbabwe – 58.59 (-)

*The rankings are officially updated at 12pm on Monday (BST)