{"id":292308,"date":"2025-11-18T09:58:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T09:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292308\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T09:58:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T09:58:17","slug":"irl-world-rankings-toa-samoa-fetu-samoa-international-rugby-league-rugby-league-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292308\/","title":{"rendered":"IRL World Rankings, Toa Samoa, Fetu Samoa, international rugby league, Rugby League World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toa Samoa\u00a0has leapfrogged Tonga\u00a0into fourth place in the IRL World Rankings<\/a>\u00a0after reaching the final of the Pacific Cup, while Fetu Samoa have continued their rise up the women\u2019s rankings to climb from 12th spot to fifth.<\/p>\n

Samoa enjoyed their most successful international campaign since the last World Cup in England in 2022, during which they stunned the host nation in the semi-final in London to qualify for the final against the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

Bolstered by the decision of Payne Haas to represent his mother\u2019s Samoan heritage, the Toa were edged 24-18 by the Kiwis in the opening Pacific Championships match, beat arch-rivals Tonga before a record 44,682 crowd in Brisbane and led 14-6 at half-time in the final but again fell short.<\/p>\n

However, the Pacific nation has been rewarded for their performances by climbing from fifth to fourth place in the IRL World Rankings, squeezing Tonga out of the top four ranked teams in the process. Tonga are ranked fifth.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

International Rugby League has announced the updated world rankings ahead of the impending release of the draw for IRL Rugby League World Cup 2026.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n \"Toa
\n
\n
\n Toa Samoa players sing the anthem.
\n \u00a9NRL Images
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\n <\/p>\n

Australia\u00a0remain No.1 in the Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s rankings, while England\u00a0retain the top Wheelchair spot they have held since defeating France in the final of RLWC21 at Manchester Central.<\/p>\n

The Kangaroos beat England 3-0 in The Ashes, while the Jillaroos retained the women\u2019s Pacific Cup and England held off a strong challenge from the Wheelaroos to win the recent Wheelchair Ashes Series in Australia.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u00a0are No.2 in both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s rankings, ahead of England.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s rankings, Samoa are fourth, followed by Tonga (5), Papua New Guinea\u00a0(6), Fiji\u00a0(7), France\u00a0(8) and Cook Islands\u00a0(9)\u2013 both of whom recently won World Cup qualifiers for the final two men\u2019s RLWC26 berths.<\/p>\n

Lebanon, the other Men\u2019s team qualified for RLWC26, have dropped from 16th\u00a0to 21st\u00a0after playing their first sanctioned match since the last World Cup in October and losing 16-14 to Italy\u00a0with a team which did not include any NRL players.<\/p>\n


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International Rugby League Women’s World Series 2025 Final: Fiji v Nigeria<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s rankings, Fiji have climbed from 16th\u00a0place to 10th\u00a0after winning IRL Rugby League World Series 2025 in Canada to secure the last women\u2019s berth at RLWC26.<\/p>\n

Nigeria, who the Bulikula beat in the final, have risen five places from 17th\u00a0to 12th\u00a0after winning back-to-back international fixtures against Ghana and then beating Ireland 10-0 in their World Series semi-final.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the biggest movers in the women\u2019s rankings are Fetu Samoa, who were 24th\u00a0before last year\u2019s Pacific Championships, which doubled as RLWC26 Pacific qualifiers, and 12th\u00a0at the start of this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

The Fetu played Australia and New Zealand after winning last year\u2019s Pacific Bowl and beating Papua New Guinea in a promotion-relegation match for a spot in the 2025 Cup tournament.<\/p>\n


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\n \"Fetu
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\n Fetu Samoa have risen up the rankings.
\n \u00a9Zain Mohammed \/ NRL Images
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The IRL World Rankings are calculated on each nation\u2019s performance over the current season and the three preceding seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Points are awarded to each team for each match based on:<\/p>\n

the result of the match – win, lose or draw.
\nThe margin of victory (or defeat) – the larger the winning margin the greater the value to the rankings.
\nThe relative strength of opposition faced – if you play a higher ranked team that is of greater value than playing a lower ranked team.
\nThe date of the match \u2013 more recent matches are weighted more heavily – a result in the most recent two years is worth double a result three years ago and four times a result that is four years old.
\nThe importance of the match – World Cup matches are ranked top followed in order by World Cup Qualifiers, Regional Championships and one-off international matches.
\nThe points are then used to create the Official World Rankings by ordering the teams by virtue of the points gained over the four-year period.<\/p>\n

Only\u00a0officially sanctioned\u00a0matches played at senior level between two approved members are considered as part of the rankings.<\/p>\n

Men<\/p>\n

The most significant movements not involving RLWC26 teams are Serbia\u00a0returning to the top 10 after winning the European Championship B division and Ukraine\u00a0climbing from 17th to 12th following their triumph in Euro C.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Serbia are now 10th after beating Netherlands\u00a0and Malta, while Ukraine\u00a0earned promotion into next year\u2019s Euro B after beating Italy (17) and Greece (15).<\/p>\n

Ukraine, who also beat Netherlands in a standalone fixture, will replace Malta (16), who lost both their matches to Serbia and Netherlands.\u00a0Malta will join Greece and Euro D champions\u00a0Germany\u00a0in Euro C\u00a0<\/p>\n

Netherlands (11), Wales (13) and Greece (15) have all dropped down the rankings order.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u00a0have moved from 28th\u00a0to 26th\u00a0after their World Cup qualification match against Cook Islands, while Ireland (14), Poland (20), Norway\u00a0(22) and Germany (23) have also risen.\u00a0Czechia\u00a0(24) and Scotland\u00a0(28) have dropped.<\/p>\n


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Shalom Sauaso Try<\/p>\n

Women<\/p>\n

Fetu Samoa\u2019s rise pushes the Orchids and Wales, who are both also in the World Cup, down a spot to sixth and seventh respectively, while Ireland and Cook Islands\u00a0remain unchanged in eight and ninth spot, ahead of Fiji (10).<\/p>\n

Ireland beat Netherlands and lost to France before travelling to Canada for the inaugural World Series, in which they lost 10-0 to Nigeria\u00a0and were beaten by the host nation in a third-place play-off.<\/p>\n

Cook Islands won their first match since beating France at the World Cup in 2022 during this year’s Pacific Championships and created history by claiming the Pacific Bowl trophy after wins over Tonga and\u00a0Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

Tonga, who also beat the Orchids, have risen from 15th\u00a0to 14th\u00a0spot, while Canada\u00a0has dropped from 10th\u00a0to 11th\u00a0place after their loss to Fiji in the World Series.<\/p>\n

Wheelchair<\/p>\n

Australia\u00a0are closing in on third-placed\u00a0Ireland\u00a0after a hard fought Ashes Series against England\u00a0on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

The Wheelaroos led early in the second half before going down 56-28 in the series opener and England was again forced to come from behind to snatch a 48-42 win in the last minute of the second clash.<\/p>\n

England remain No.1, followed by France, Ireland and Australia but only the narrowest of margins now separates the Wheelaroos from Ireland.<\/p>\n

Significantly, while Australia has closed the gap to Ireland, the back-to-back Celtic Cup have also improved their score over the course of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toa Samoa\u00a0has leapfrogged Tonga\u00a0into fourth place in the IRL World Rankings\u00a0after reaching the final of the Pacific Cup,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-292308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}