France and Ireland climb world rankings

David Skippers
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France and Ireland have climbed the World Rugby Men’s Rankings after the latest round of fixtures in the Six Nations.

After a thrilling end to Round Five of the competition, France are still in contention for a first Championship title since 2010.

Saturday’s dramatic 32-30 win over Wales means they go into Friday’s rearranged encounter with Scotland, also in Paris, knowing that a bonus-point victory by 21 clear points will guarantee them the trophy.

Wales still top the Six Nations table on 20 points with Ireland and France both five points behind, but they now need Scotland to do them a favour.

France up to third

By denying Wales a Grand Slam, France have also moved up to third in the rankings, with only South Africa and New Zealand ahead of them, while Wayne Pivac’s shell-shocked side drop from fifth to sixth.

In Dublin, Ireland were on course to overtake England in the rankings until Jonny May’s late consolation try for the visitors closed the gap sufficiently to prevent them slipping lower than fourth. Ireland move up one to fifth as a result of their convincing 32-18 victory in Dublin.

The opening match of ‘Super Saturday’ went to form with an emphatic 52-10 win for Scotland over Italy.

It concluded Italy’s worst-ever Six Nations in terms of points and tries conceded and they finish the campaign ranked one place lower than when they started it in 15th. As heavy favourites, Scotland did not get any additional rating points for the victory and they remain in ninth place in the rankings.

Meanwhile, Romania traded ranking places with Spain, with the teams now in 18th and 19th, respectively, after a 22-16 win over Los Leones in the second round of the Rugby Europe Championship 2021 in Bucharest.

There was never more than a score between the teams but an ill-disciplined second-half performance cost the visitors the chance of a first-ever win on Romanian soil.

Spain’s chances of a precious away win in the chase for Rugby World Cup 2023 qualification points received a huge blow when number eight Fred Quercy was sent off for foul play. That dismissal was then compounded by two yellow cards – taking their overall total in the game to four – as Spain finished the game down to 12 men.

Rugby Europe Championship leaders Georgia extended their run of consecutive wins over Russia to 18 matches in Kaliningrad.

Georgia scored three tries in a 23-6 victory, including a maiden test try for 18-year-old Davit Niniashvili.

With less than half a rating point on offer for the win, the Lelos stay in 12th place and Russia are still 20th.

World Rugby Rankings
(Previous position in brackets)

1(1) South Africa 94.20
2(2) New Zealand 88.95
3(4) France 86.17
4(3) England 85.44
5(6) Ireland 84.69
6(5) Wales 83.44
7(7) Australia 83.08
8(8) Argentina 80.31
9(9) Scotland 80.12
10(10) Japan 79.29
11 (11) Fiji 76.87
12 (12) Georgia 73.73
13 (13) Tonga 71.44
14 (14) Samoa 70.72
15 (15) Italy 70.65
16 (16) USA 68.10
17 (17) Uruguay 67.02
18 (19) Romania 66.22
19 (18) Spain 66.03
20 (20) Russia 62.71

With thanks to World Rugby

 

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