Australia climb World Rugby rankings after dominant Scotland win

Australia’s eight-try victory over Scotland has seen the side move up to sixth place in the World Rugby rankings.

The Wallaroos dominated Scotland at Sydney’s Accor Stadium to win 56-12.

Both Amelia Whitaker and Desiree Miller scored twice, while Brittany Merlo, Maya Stewart, Waiaria Ellis and Eva Karpani also scored tries.

Sammie Wood enjoyed a dominant performance at scrum-half and logged 12 points from the kicking tee. RugbyPass‘ Finn Morton wrote:

“Wood directed the team around the park in attack, helping the Wallaroos make the most of space with quick thinking and accurate passing.

“The now 20-Test international slotted some challenging shots at the posts and proved effective when kicking for touch.”

Due to the USA Women’s Eagles’ lesser winning margin against Italy, Jack Hanratty’s team could not hold onto sixth place.

In Mansfield, Texas, the Eagles registered a 36-27 win over the Azzurre as the team’s co-captain, Georgie Perris-Redding, scored a hat-trick in front of more than 3,600 supporters.

“That was really tough,” Perris-Redding said at full-time. “I think we made it harder than we needed to, but I’m so proud of the girls.

“Definitely closer than we’d like. We’ve got a lot of hard work to do now. We’re back on the ground next weekend.

“We know what we want to fix and change. Hopefully we can come back even better in Nashville [this Friday].”

Elsewhere, the remaining WXV Global Series results did not lead to further changes in the World Rugby rankings.

Canada have closed the gap on second-place New Zealand. Meanwhile, fourth-place France saw their advantage over Ireland remain largely unchanged despite an 81-12 defeat to the Black Ferns.

In South America, Chile faced Mexico in a non-WXV Global Series fixture.

Chile’s 39-10 victory over Mexico at CARR Parque Mahuida in Santiago saw the Manque XV climb six places to 28th in the World Rugby rankings.

Mexico, meanwhile, dropped to 35th. Tonga fell to 29th as a result of these changes, while Tunisia rose to 34th.