Rankings: What a win in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry could mean for the Springbok Women

The Springbok Women could leap three places up the World Rugby rankings with a shock win against the Black Ferns at FNB Stadium.

On Saturday, the Springbok Women and Black Ferns will play one another as part of a doubleheader in Soweto. The fixture acts as a curtain-raiser to the Springboks and All Blacks‘ third Test in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.

Any victory for the Springbok Women will see them move three places up the World Rugby rankings from 10th to seventh. An additional place is up for grabs if South Africa win by 15 points or more.

Defeat would also see Whitney Hansen’s team drop to third, with Canada in line to replace them in second. A win cannot see New Zealand rise any higher in the rankings.

It will only be the third time that the Springbok Women and Black Ferns have ever played one another. It will be the first time that the fixture has been played on home soil.

The two teams first met in 2010 at that year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup. 15 years later they met again, this time at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, in a quarter-final at Exeter’s Sandy Park.

In a highly physical and engaging encounter, South Africa went in to the break of their first-ever knockout game at a Women’s Rugby World Cup level with the six-time champions.

By full-time the Black Ferns were 46-17 winners in England’s South West. Nearly a year one, that match is looked at as a sign of things to come for the Springbok Women and also delivered a stern lesson.

Libbie Janse van Rensburg, Springbok Women fly-half said, said: “We had a plan and it worked for the first half, when we were 10-10.

“We did not maintain that composure in the second half and that allowed them to run away with it. We cannot afford just one half, we need to play equally well in both.”

Coming into the contest, South Africa have been rocked by the departure of Swys de Bruin as head coach. Assistant coaches Laurian Johannes-Haupt and Franzel September have been named as co-head coaches ahead of WXV Global Series fixtures against Wales, Italy and Ireland.

Friday’s 15-12 victory for Fiji against Japan will see them rise from 13th to 12th in the rankings. This shift means that Wales will drop to their lowest ever position on the rankings, 13th.

At WXV Global Series Challenger – hosted at Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground in Hong Kong – the Fijiana XV will play Test matches against Spain, Hong Kong China and the Netherlands.