South Africa (Commonwealth) _ South Africa moved up to 92.78 ranking in the latest World Rugby Men’s Rankings after defeating England 29–20 on Saturday at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.
Despite having a 1.25-point lead over New Zealand at the beginning of the weekend, the Springboks are now two points ahead of Ireland, who have displaced the All Blacks in second spot in the latest ratings.
Ireland earned just two tenths of a point for their hard-fought 22-19 victory over Argentina at home, but their new rating of 90.78 points puts them ahead of New Zealand, whose rating dropped to 90.09 points after losing 30-29 to France at the Stade de France in what was likely the best match of this weekend’s Autumn Nations Series.
For a while, it appeared as though Georgia would make it into the very top 10 for the first time in years after leading Italy by 11 points at halftime in Genoa, but France is still in fourth place and is getting closer to the top three. The other spots in the top 10 stayed the same, with results falling as predicted.
While the Lelos failed to contain Wales, who lost to Australia 52–20 at home, Italy played well in the second half to win 20–17 and maintain their tenth-place standing.
Following their wins over Uruguay and Tonga, Japan and the USA both moved up a spot, rising to 13th and 15th, respectively.
However, the biggest winners of the weekend were the Netherlands, who overcame the higher-ranked Chile 20–17 in Amsterdam. As a result, Lyn Jones’ squad is now just one step away from hitting their all-time high of 23rd place, having risen three spots to 24th place.
World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, manages the World Rugby Rankings, a system of rankings for rugby union’s national teams. There are separate ranks for men and women. World Rugby ranks teams from its member countries based on their match performance, placing the most profitable squads first.
World Rugby has implemented a point system that distributes points based on the results of recognized international matches. A team’s performance determines rankings, giving greater weight to more recent outcomes and important games to reflect their current competitive status.
The month before the 2003 Rugby World Cup saw the introduction of the men’s ranking system, and on September 8, 2003, the “IRB Rankings” were the first updated rankings.
Although this isn’t always the case, World Rugby states that the leading side in the world will usually have a rating above 90″. Despite their ratings dropping to 89.04, New Zealand maintained their top spot in August 2019 after losing to Australia in the Rugby Championship in Perth.
A week later, Wales defeated England at Cardiff in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test, raising their rating to 89.43 and securing the top spot. While Ireland would eventually reach the top of the summit with a rating of 89.47 after defeating Wales in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test in Dublin, some nations that have achieved a rating of over 90 rating points, like Australia (91.75) and Ireland (91.17), did not achieve the top spot. Australia has yet to reach the top-ranked position.
This is because of New Zealand’s achievements, which included a record 509 weeks and 6 days of being rated above 90 rating points (from the second of November 2009 to the eleventh of August 2019), which came to a stop with the above-noted loss to Australia.
With 96.57 rating points thus far, New Zealand currently holds the world record for most rating points of any team. On November 24, 2003, after their World Cup victory in Australia, England set the record at 93.99. However, on August 28, 2006, after their Tri Nations victory against South Africa in Pretoria, New Zealand overtook them with a rating of 94.62.
The All Blacks would go on to further push this record over the years, reaching 95.01 points on June 25, 2007, following their victory over South Africa in Durban; 96.10 points following their victory in the 2015 World Cup in England; and 96.30 points on August 22, 2016, following their victory over Australia in Sydney in the Rugby Championship.
On October 10, 2016, they achieved their current record of 96.57 points. In November 2016, New Zealand’s record streak came to an end when they lost to Ireland at Soldier Field in Chicago during the Autumn International Test Series.
