Springboks achieve World Rankings record after wrapping up 3-1 series win

Having wrapped up a 3-1 victory in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series following their emphatic 43-28 win over the All Blacks in Baltimore on Saturday, South Africa have pulled further clear at the top of the World Rugby Rankings.

The Springboks held a 2.44-point lead over the All Blacks going into the series finale, but that has now increased to 3.95 points – the biggest it has been since July 2024.

With more rankings points awarded for victories where the margin exceeds 15 points, South Africa’s lead would have been the highest it’s been for five years, since July 2021, had they not allowed All Blacks veteran Beauden Barrett to cross for a consolation try at the death.

Instead, the Springboks will find themselves on 95.09 points when the rankings are officially updated by World Rugby at noon on Monday (12:00 BST), having gained 0.75 points, while the All Blacks will drop back to 91.15 points in second.

The Springboks have held the lead in the rankings on 10 separate occasions since they were introduced 23 years ago – four before the return to play post-Covid and six times in the last five years.

But their score has never topped 95 points before, not even when they won the Rugby World Cup in 2007, 2019 and 2023, nor when they went on their record 98-week continuous run between November 2019 and September 2021.

When they lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in Paris in 2007, they were rated at 90.82 points. In 2019, their score was 94.20 points and in 2023, it had climbed to 94.54 points.

It touched 94.86 points at the start of July 2024 after they’d beaten a strong Ireland team at Loftus Versfeld, but that was as good as it got, as they lost 25-24 in the rematch in Durban the following week.

To emphasise the success of Rassie Erasmus’ time in charge through the rankings, South Africa were languishing in seventh place on a paltry 82.78 points when he lost his first match in charge against Wales, also in the United States, at the start of June 2018.

Updated World Rankings Top 12

1. South Africa – 95.09
2. New Zealand – 91.15
3. Ireland – 88.08
4. France – 87.43
5. England – 85.68
6. Scotland – 84.68
7. Australia – 83.55
8. Argentina – 82.25
9. Fiji – 78.00
10. Wales – 76.38
11. Italy – 76.30
12. Japan – 76.09