{"id":522848,"date":"2026-03-06T16:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522848\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T16:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:32:10","slug":"springboks-and-all-blacks-untouchable-in-world-rugby-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522848\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks and All Blacks untouchable in World Rugby Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa<\/a> and New Zealand\u2019s position at the top of the World Rugby Men\u2019s Rankings<\/a> is assured regardless of what drama unfolds in the fourth round of the Guinness Men\u2019s Six Nations, which begins tonight in Dublin with Ireland<\/a> up against Wales.<\/p>\n

Third-placed Ireland cannot improve their rating with a win over a Welsh side languishing nine places lower than them in the rankings, so it is up to France<\/a> to try and eat into the gap between the top two and the chasing pack.<\/p>\n

Les Bleus will regain third place off Ireland if they beat Scotland<\/a> at Murrayfield on Saturday, with the potential to close the gap on the All Blacks<\/a> to a single point. To do that, France must win by more than 15 points.<\/p>\n

Scotland will slide two places, back below Australia<\/a> and Fiji, if they become the fourth team to lose to France this championship, with another place lost if Italy<\/a> create history with a first-ever victory over England.<\/p>\n

A record seventh place is within Italy\u2019s reach, but only if they beat England<\/a> by more than 15 points and Scotland lose at home to France.<\/p>\n

Defeat for England in Rome will result in them dropping below Argentina<\/a> to sixth. However, if the margin is more than 15 points and is matched by a Scotland win of the same magnitude, England will also slip below their Calcutta Cup rivals.<\/p>\n

England can only improve on fifth place if they beat Italy and Ireland lose by more than 15 points at home to Wales, a scenario that lifts them a place to fourth.<\/p>\n

Wales<\/a> will climb back above Japan<\/a> into 11th if they avoid defeat in Dublin. They will remain in 12th if they suffer a 15th consecutive Six Nations<\/a> loss because 13th-placed Georgia<\/a> can\u2019t improve their rating with a win over Romania<\/a> this weekend.<\/p>\n

Unlike Georgia, the seven other teams participating in the semi-finals weekend can improve their rating, and for Spain, there\u2019s an opportunity to match their previous best rankings position of 14th. To do that, they need to beat Portugal<\/a> in the other Rugby Europe Championship<\/a> semi-final.<\/p>\n

World Rugby Rankings Top 12:<\/p>\n

1 South Africa 93.94
2 New Zealand<\/a> 90.33
3 Ireland 88.89
4 France 88.40
5 England 85.62
6 Argentina 84.97
7 Scotland 81.71
8 Australia 81.53
9 Fiji<\/a> 81.14
10 Italy 79.81
11 Japan 74.09
12 Wales 73.62<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa and New Zealand\u2019s position at the top of the World Rugby Men\u2019s Rankings is assured regardless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-522848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522848","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=522848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}