Major change introduced to world rankings in time for Nations Championship

The World Rugby Rankings, the system to determine Test rugby’s best teams, is set for its first change in years.

Other than introducing penalties for inactive unions, the rankings have largely remained unaltered since they were first used, in 2003 for the men’s game and in 2016 for women’s Tests.

Effective from July 1st, ‘home weighting’ will now be removed when calculating how many ratings points are riding on the outcome of a match.

Under the current system, the home side is treated as though they are three rating points better than their current rating, which means they are effectively ‘handicapped’ and will pick up fewer points for winning and give away more points for losing.

However, with more matches being played at neutral venues, World Rugby believes it is time to change the calculation criteria.

World Rugby say the change has been brought in because, “the international competition landscape has changed significantly in recent years and many tournaments are now played in centralised or out of country locations for strategic, commercial or financial reasons, meaning the home weighting often disadvantages the host team from a rankings perspective.”

World Rugby point to the fact that Fiji will play their designated ‘home’ matches against Wales, England and Scotland in the first phase of the Nations Championship on foreign soil, while Japan will play Ireland in Australia, also in July.

In addition, World Rugby Nations Cup teams will play in cluster locations and the WXV Global Series Challenger will be played in a central location in Hong Kong.

At present some 20 matches across internationals competitions are scheduled to take place in neutral locations before the end of 2026, including the final test between South Africa and New Zealand in their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series in Baltimore, USA, in September.

It will be interesting to see what impact the change has on the rankings, which have been dominated by South Africa for the last nine months.

Despite the tribalism of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations, home side dominance over the last five championships isn’t quite as marked as you might think, with a 60/40 split in terms of wins.

In The Rugby Championship, the difference is negligible, with 22 wins to the host nation and 19 to the visiting team over the past four campaigns (Argentina’s ‘home’ game vs South Africa at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, was not included).

Current World Rugby Men’s Rankings Top 12

1. South Africa – 93.94
2. New Zealand – 90.33
3. Ireland – 89.07
4. France – 87.46
5. Argentina – 84.97
6. England – 83.91
7. Scotland – 82.90
8. Australia – 81.53
9. Fiji – 81.14
10. Italy 79.64
11. Wales – 75.07
12. Japan – 74.09