Ireland have shot up two places in the latest World Rugby rankings following their hammering of England at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.<\/p>\n
Their emphatic Six Nations victory earned them a full-house of five points in the league standings and resulted in a 2.09 rating point boost.<\/p>\n
Top 10 shake up<\/p>\n
Jamison Gibson-Park, Robert Baloucoune, Tommy O\u2019Brien, Dan Sheehan and Jamie Osborne all crossed for tries en route to the record 42-21 victory in Twickenham while Fraser Dingwall, Ollie Lawrence and Sam Underhill all dotted down for Steve Borthwick\u2019s charges.<\/p>\n
The result sees Ireland<\/a> leapfrog England and France<\/a> into third place on the World Rugby rankings, with Les Bleus unable to reclaim that position regardless of the result in the final Six Nations<\/a> match of the Round Three weekend against Italy in Lille in Sunday. Andy Farrell\u2019s men remain 1.44 rating points behind the No.2 New Zealand.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Scotland<\/a> needed a late George Turner try to defeat a passionate Wales outfit 26-23 in Cardiff. The result has seen Gregor Townsend\u2019s men jump two places in the rankings, moving ahead of Australia and Fiji into seventh.<\/p>\n Scotland dramatically snatch Cardiff \u2018pot-boiler\u2019 after Wales seemed set for upset victory<\/a><\/p>\n The narrow defeat also saw Wales drop from 11th to 12th below Japan in the standings and they now only hold a narrow 0.14 rating point advantage over Georgia.<\/p>\n The Georgians earned 0.30 rating points for their 42-30 win in the Rugby Europe Championship against Spain earlier on Saturday. That result cemented their 13th-placed ranking as Spain remained above USA in 15th place.<\/p>\n While Scotland have moved into seventh, that position is not safe as Italy can jump from 10th to seventh with an away victory over France.<\/p>\n A win of any kind will see the Azzurri do just that, while Les Bleus will only drop below their current fourth-place standing if Italy stun them with a victory of more than 15 points.<\/p>\n England v Ireland: Five takeaways as Andy Farrell\u2019s \u2018radical\u2019 selections inspires Twickenham \u2018humiliation\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Latest World Rugby Rankings<\/p>\n (As of 21\/02\/2026 before Germany v Belguim)<\/p>\n 1 South Africa 93.94 Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n
2 New Zealand 90.33
3 (\u21912) Ireland 88.89 (+2.09)
4 (\u21931) France 88.40
5 (\u21931) England 85.62 (-2.09)
6 Argentina 84.97
7 (\u21912) Scotland 81.71 (+0.61)
8 (\u21931) Australia 81.53
9 (\u21931) Fiji 81.14
10 Italy 79.81
11 (\u21911) Japan 74.09
12 (\u21931)Wales 73.62 (-0.61)
13 Georgia 73.48 (+0.30)
14 Uruguay 69.19
15 Spain 68.86 (-0.30)
16 USA 68.26
17 Chile 66.72
18 Tonga 66.66
19 Portugal 66.53
20 Samoa 66.43<\/p>\n