Latest World Rugby rankings: Springboks retain top spot ahead of All Blacks Tests as Wales rise to two-year high
Springboks back Ethan Hooker and the latest World Rugby Rankings.
Following the weekend’s international action, here’s how the World Rugby rankings have been impacted after Japan versus Australia and Argentina’s clash with the Springboks.
Springboks stay top ahead of All Blacks series
The Springboks will enter the Greatest Rivalry Series against the All Blacks as the top-ranked team in the world after eking out a hard-fought 17-10 victory over a passionate Los Pumas outfit.
Rassie Erasmus’ men once again put top spot on the line when they tackled Argentina in Buenos Aires, but the men in Green and Gold managed to come out on top after a 10-all half-time scoreline.
Tries from Cameron Hanekom and Edwill van der Merwe were enough to see the Springboks through to victory against a dogged Los Pumas team, with the result earning South Africa no rating points but does mean they remain at the summit of the rankings ahead of the four Tests against New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Argentina remain in seventh position after earning and losing no rating points in defeat.
Australia improve under Les Kiss
The Wallabies improved their World Rugby ranking in their first game under new head coach Les Kiss, earning a 0.48 rating point bump following their narrow 32-35 victory over Japan in Osaka.
It was not enough of a buffer to overtake Argentina in seventh position, but it had a knock-on effect for Japan, who dropped two ranking places and out of the top 10.
Wales benefited from the result as they returned to the top 10 of the World Rugby rankings for the first time since July 2024.
Kiss can thank the efforts of scrum-half Ryan Lonergan, who nailed all of his conversion attempts, with Ben Donaldson adding the fifth, while Harry Potter and Tom Wright crossed for tries in the first half, and Max Jorgensen, Fraser McReight and Taniela Tupou dotted down in the second half.
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As for Japan, Eddie Jones’ charges battled valiantly throughout and kept close to the Australians thanks to tries from Ryunosuke Ito, Lua Makisi and Warner Dearns, with Takuro Matsunaga adding two conversions and two penalties.
Current World Rugby Rankings
1 South Africa 93.96
2 New Zealand 92.28
3 Ireland 88.08
4 France 87.43
5 England 85.68
6 Scotland 84.78
7 Argentina 83.13
8 Australia 82.09 (+0.48)
9 Fiji 78.00
10 (↑1) Wales 76.38
11 (↑1) Italy 76.30
12 (↓2) Japan 75.94 (-0.48)
13 Georgia 73.94
14 USA 70.22
15 Portugal 69.39
