World Rugby Rankings: Scotland equal best-ever position as All Blacks hunt down Springboks

Adam Kyriacou 07 Jul 2026 2:34 PM

Scotland move above Argentina in the World Rugby Rankings.

The opening weekend of the inaugural Nations Championship and Nations Cup has seen five teams make climbs up the World Rugby rankings list.

Scotland, Chile, USA, Samoa and Canada are the sides to make an upward move.

Scotland’s 47-38 victory over Argentina in Córdoba has resulted in Gregor Townsend’s team equalling their best-ever ranking of fifth, replacing Los Pumas, who drop to seventh.

It was the only positional change among the world’s top 13 nations, although other results did affect some teams’ ratings, with points won or lost.

All Blacks cut gap on Springboks

Since South Africa’s 45-21 win over England was not rewarded due to the 10.03 points differential between the teams, New Zealand took the opportunity to close the gap on the Springboks.

The All Blacks picked up 0.71 points as a result of their tense 34-32 win over France, and there is now just 2.90 points between the southern hemisphere rivals at the top of the rankings.

Ireland, ranked third, made marginal gains from their 33-31 win against Australia, while France, England and the Wallabies remain unchanged in fourth, sixth and eighth respectively after making losing starts to the Nations Championship.

Fiji and Italy hang on to ninth and 10th despite being beaten by Wales and Japan, who both remain outside the top 10 for now.

In addition to Scotland, USA are also up two places to 14th, which is as high as they have been since RWC 2019, after a 30-29 win over Portugal in the Nations Cup.

Samoa, who beat Hong Kong China 66-19, and Canada, who drew 42-42 with Spain, were at their lowest-ever rankings heading into the weekend, but both teams have improved by a couple of places to 18th and 23rd.

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Chile are also upwardly mobile, climbing one spot to 17th, equalling their highest-ever position, after beginning their Nations Cup campaign with a 48-31 win over Romania in Santiago.

Spain were the biggest losers of the weekend from a rankings perspective, dropping three places to 20th after playing their part in Test rugby’s highest-scoring draw. It is Los Leones’ lowest position since they were last ranked 20th in January 2024.

Nations Cup defeats cost Portugal (15th), Uruguay (16th), Hong Kong China (24th) and Zimbabwe (25th) one place.