Test power rankings: Springboks top the charts ‘in every department’ after ‘sublime’ Nations Championship while France ‘set alarm bells ringing’
Planet Rugby's take on the international power rankings following the end of the Nations Championship
With the Southern Hemisphere leg of the 2026 Nations Championship behind us, Planet Rugby takes a look at the international power rankings following the three rounds.
10 Wales
Steve Tandy’s big thing is continued progress from campaign to campaign, and Wales have probably done that this July.
A win against Fiji was exactly the way Wales would have wanted to start, especially off the back of their win over Italy in the Six Nations. Was it perfect? No, but it was a win over a Tier One nation, and that has been hard to come by for Wales in recent years. While they did taste defeat to Argentina in round two, they again showed signs of improvement. The Springboks defeat was tough, of course, but you do have to put it in the wider context of their 73-0 defeat to the same opposition back in November.
Change was never going to happen overnight, but Wales are again showing they are heading in the right direction.
9 Japan
Really pleasing campaign for the Brave Blossoms, who look to be building back up again.
Japan’s campaign got off to a flying start with a win over Italy, who came into the month looking to build off the back of a strong Six Nations, before giving Ireland a real scare in round two. France did get the better of them, but they showed flashes of quality against Les Bleus and deserve praise for that.
Given they were one of the invited teams, they certainly proved their value to the competition.
8 Argentina
Disappointing compared to where they were in November, to be brutally honest.
Los Pumas have been slowly building under Felipe Contepomi in the past year, beating the All Blacks on home soil, stunning Scotland with a famous comeback and pushing both South Africa and an in-form England side all the way. This Nations Championship campaign felt like a chance to make another major statement, but they fell short.
Their defeats to both Scotland and England will surely sting, for different reasons perhaps, while a win over Wales would have likely been seen as the absolute minimum heading into the campaign.
They can rectify this over a busy Southern Hemisphere Test schedule in the next few months, and you would certainly bank on them to do so.
7 Australia
Tough to summarise, but in the grand scheme of things probably a positive campaign?
Joe Schmidt’s side had been on a terrible run of form heading into the Nations Championship after losing all four of their November Tests, and needed to get back in the winners’ column ahead of the Les Kiss era.
Two defeats in their opening two Tests didn’t help, but they were actually pretty strong performances against Ireland and France, losing by a combined margin of 18. However, they finally got their win, and in some style with a 57-10 thrashing over Italy.
Australia now have a busy schedule over the next few months, but this campaign has put them in a good position to build up again under incoming boss Kiss.
6 England
A step forward from the Six Nations, which should lift some of the pressure off them.
England simply needed to get back to winning ways this July, after a run of four straight defeats earlier in the year. The Springboks did extend that to five with a comfortable win at Ellis Park, granted, but then Steve Borthwick’s side put Fiji to the sword with a 73-8 win and held off a strong Argentina comeback in Santiago del Estero. Performances also saw a notable improvement from where they were in the Six Nations, especially in attack.
The challenge facing them now is if they can build on these victories and kick on into November.
5 Scotland
Could certainly make an argument for them to be higher on this list, to be fair, but Scotland have certainly backed up their Six Nations improvements this month and look to be troubling the top table.
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The win over Argentina was potentially more symbolic than anything else, given their collapse against them back in November, but it got them off to a good start before the Springboks. Gregor Townsend’s side then put in a strong display against the world champions in round two, arguably the Boks’ toughest Test of the month at that, before ending with a strong comeback win over a much-improved Fiji.
Within that, they seemed to play with renewed confidence once again, a far cry from where they were back in November and even the start of the Six Nations, and that should leave them in a good spot moving forward.
All in all, Scotland should feel pretty happy about where they are post-Nations Championship.
4 Ireland
This Nations Championship has probably reinforced the idea we had of Ireland heading into it, really. They sit comfortably in the top four, but maybe need to kick on a touch again.
Their campaign began with a decent win over Australia, which involved coming back from a 24-19 deficit at half-time, before a much-changed team beat Japan in round two. That win in Newcastle might not have been vintage Ireland, but it allowed Andy Farrell to hand out four debuts and give some of his fringe players a go, and that is always a crucial thing when building depth. The defeat to the All Blacks will potentially linger in the mind for a while, though, given the manner of it.
But, all in all, two wins from three cannot be sniffed at.
3 France
The chatter around Les Bleus ahead of the summer was more about the players they’d left at home rather than those that were on the plane. That has pretty quickly been silenced.
France showed the full might of their depth chart this month. Without the likes of Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Antoine Dupont, Thomas Ramos, Francois Cros, Charles Ollivon and others, they still managed to come away with two big wins over Australia and Japan while running the All Blacks incredibly close as well.
Yes, France still had Maxime Lucu, Romain Ntamack, Matthieu Jalibert, Theo Attissogbe and Emmanuel Meafou, but to pick up wins like that and produce performances like they did with a rotated squad should set alarm bells ringing across the Test game.
French rugby is in rude health, and they will only get better moving forward.
2 New Zealand
Pretty much the perfect start to the Dave Rennie era, and will likely set the standard for them moving forward under his stewardship.
The way they improved as the campaign went on certainly shows how quickly they are taking to the new approach. A good win over France turned into a strong victory against Italy, which turned into a dominant display over Ireland. That is very, very impressive so early into a new regime.
121 points scored across the month, an average of just over 40 points-per-Test, reflects their attacking changes. Whereas in Scott Robertson’s tenure they would likely have kicked for possession and tried to grind teams down, Rennie and Mike Blair want them to play ball-in-hand rugby built around speed and intent. That was clear to see this July.
This will leave the new boss beaming.
1 Springboks
Not that it was up for debate, but the Springboks are comfortably the best team in the world in every department. Rassie Erasmus’ side enjoyed a sublime Nations Championship, winning all three Tests pretty comfortably while deploying 43 different players and six debutants. Is there another side in the Test game that could do that? I don’t think so.
It’s not just the wins, but it’s the manner of which they are coming now. Tony-ball has seen them add a genuinely exciting, fast-paced and expansive attack on top of their traditional strengths up front and in the scrum, which helped them average just over 43 points-per-Test, while scoring 40+ points in each of their three outings. On top of that, they only conceded 49 points along the way, an average of just over 16 points-per-Test. Those numbers alone are worth shouting about, but it also puts them top of the points-scoring charts and the lowest amount of points conceded across the entire Championship combined.
When you factor in that these performances all came with a lengthy injury list containing several double-World Cup winners and captain Siya Kolisi, it only puts the cherry on top.
The Springboks are head and shoulders the best in the world right now.