Latest World Rugby rankings: Springboks strengthen stronghold on top spot while England, Japan and Spain climb
st World Rankings and an image of Springboks fly-half Handre Pollard.
The Springboks have marginally strengthened their position at the top of the World Rugby standings following the latest weekend of results in the Nations Championship.
South Africa headed into the round knowing that they could only increase their rating points by 0.03 with a comprehensive victory over Scotland at Loftus Versfeld, but because they managed a 14-point success instead of the required 15 or more, they earned just 0.02 points instead.
The 42-28 victory in Pretoria means that South Africa remain at the summit of the Nations Championship standings after two rounds of action too, whilst there have been further changes in the top 10 of the World Rugby rankings following the weekend’s results.
Changes to the top 10
The first significant change sees England and Scotland trade places in the standings for a second weekend in a row. The Scots’ 47-38 victory over Argentina in round one of the Nations Championship saw them equal their best-ever ranking of fifth, but their defeat to the Boks, paired with England’s 73-8 thrashing of Fiji, has seen the two nations trade places once again.
England earned 0.84 rating points for their win over the Pacific Islanders, which was enough to surpass the beaten Scots. Meanwhile, Fiji held onto ninth place in the rankings despite losing 0.84 rating points, with Italy 1.38 rating points adrift.
Ireland remain behind South Africa and New Zealand in the rankings after the All Blacks earned no rating points for their 47-17 victory over Italy in Wellington, while the same was true for Andy Farrell’s side, who beat Japan 36-20 in Newcastle, Australia.
Despite the defeat, Eddie Jones’ Japan have moved up the rankings into 11th position, ahead of Wales, who lost 0.29 rating points in their 35-21 defeat to Argentina. Los Pumas earned the same amount of rating points and moved within 0.03 of sixth-placed Scotland.
Spain were the biggest climbers of the weekend as they earned 1.02 rating points for their 32-19 win over Tonga in the World Rugby Nations Cup, a result that saw them jump four positions from 20th to 16th. Spain dropped three spots last weekend after their stalemate with Canada in round one but shot up four places and one shy of their joint all-time high with their win over Tonga this weekend. Uruguay, Chile, Samoa and Tonga all dropped a single position in the rankings as a result.
Latest World Rugby rankings
(As of 12/07/2026)
1 South Africa 93.96 (+0.02)
2 New Zealand 91.04
3 Ireland 89.32
4 France 87.43 (+0.68)
5 (↑1) England 84.75 (+0.84)
6 (↓1) Scotland 84.09 (-0.02)
7 Argentina 84.06 (+0.29)
8 Australia 80.60 (-0.68)
9 Fiji 78.69 (-0.84)
10 Italy 77.31
11 (↑1) Japan 76.42
12 (↓1) Wales 76.38 (-0.29)
13 Georgia 73.30 (+0.64)
14 USA 69.40
15 Portugal 68.67 (+0.17)
16 (↑4) Spain 67.66 (+1.02)
17 (↓1) Uruguay 67.62 (-0.84)
18 (↓1) Chile 67.59 (+0.27)
19 (↓1) Samoa 66.27 (-0.64)
20 (↓1) Tonga 65.85 (-1.02)
