No.1 Springboks are third-best in the World Rankings record books

While South Africa have dominated world rugby since Rassie Erasmus turned things around for the Springboks and led them to back-to-back Rugby World Cup wins in 2019 and 2023, in World Rugby Rankings terms they still have a very long way to go before becoming the most successful team on the planet.

The Springboks will go into the inaugural Nations Championship in July sitting proudly at the top of the rankings, with a sizeable 3.61-point gap between themselves and the All Blacks, who are about to embark on a new era under Dave Rennie.

If they can see off England in their opening fixture in Johannesburg, South Africa will be long odds-on favourites to go on and beat Scotland and Wales in their remaining Nations Championship fixtures, and protect their place at the top until the second phase of the new global position takes place in November.

This September would mark the Springboks’ one-year anniversary at number one, a position they have held nine times since the world rankings were introduced in the men’s game in the second half of 2003.

The Springboks looked every bit the world’s best team when they inflicted a record defeat on New Zealand in the 2025 Rugby Championship last September, coming away from Wellington with a 43-10 victory, and they have proved untouchable ever since, on their way to accumulating 93.94 ranking points.

Remarkably, though, South Africa have never managed an unbroken two-year stretch at the top of the world rankings, with a best of 98 continous weeks, spanning the Covid-19 era, from November 2019 through to September 2021.

This falls a long way short of the great All Blacks team that also won back-to-back Webb Ellis Cups in 2011 and 2015 and looked down on the rest of the world rankings-wise in a near-decade of dominance (November 2019-August 2019) spanning 507 weeks.

When they were finally toppled as a result of a dispiriting 47-26 loss at the hands of Australia, it sparked a period where the lead changed hands six times in the final few months of 2019, in part due to double points being awarded during the Rugby World Cup.

The All Blacks regained their place at the top twice, while Wales, Ireland and England all had their turns, before the Springboks’ third RWC triumph in Japan saw them end 2019 at number one.

There have been no shortage of changes since then, either, with South Africa, New Zealand and Ireland flip flopping as the number one team for varying lengths of time, while France had one week in the sun in July 2022.

While England were the first team to top the newly-introduced rankings in 2003, Ireland hold the northern hemisphere record for most time at the top (just under 15 months from mid-July 2022 to mid-October 2023).

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

Longest continuous reigns at the top

1. New Zealand – 507 weeks (Nov 2009 – Aug 2019)
2. New Zealand – 174 weeks (June 2004 – Oct 2007)
3. South Africa – 98 weeks (Nov 2019 – Sept 2021)
4. Ireland – 75 weeks (July 2022 – Oct 2023)