{"id":440741,"date":"2026-02-23T05:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T05:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/440741\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T05:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T05:18:09","slug":"world-rankings-get-major-six-nations-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/440741\/","title":{"rendered":"World Rankings get major Six Nations shake-up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/ireland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/scotland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scotland<\/a> are the big winners in the World Rugby Men\u2019s Rankings after the third round of the Six Nations.<\/p>\n<p>Ruthless Ireland have leapt up two places to third on the back of their record 42-21 win away to England, while Scotland have also climbed two places, moving up from ninth to seventh.<\/p>\n<p>England\u2019s defeat \u2013 their fifth heaviest at home \u2013 sends them back down to fifth, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/france\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">France<\/a> falling one place to fourth, as they did not receive any points for their hard-fought 33-8 win at home to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/italy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Italy<\/a> on Sunday and have been overtaken by Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Rugby World Cup 2027 hosts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a> have been demoted to eighth as a result of Scotland\u2019s 26-23 success in Cardiff, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/fiji\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fiji<\/a> are down to ninth.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/wales\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wales<\/a> are another team to lose ground, their reduced rating of 73.62 seeing them drop down to 12th.<\/p>\n<p>The first three games of the third round of the Rugby Europe\u2019s Men\u2019s Championship had a minimal affect on the rankings, although Switzerland\u2019s tremendous 29-23 win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/netherlands\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Netherlands<\/a> sees the teams swap places.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/switzerland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Switzerland<\/a> are now 27th, one place off their all-time best, while the Netherlands replace them in 28th.<\/p>\n<p>Reigning champions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/georgia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Georgia<\/a> remain in 13th after their 42-30 win over Spain, who stay 15th.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/belgium\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Belgium<\/a> beat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/germany\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Germany<\/a> 18-3 but the result did not affect either teams position, with the Black Devils 23rd and the Black Eagles 31st.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/portugal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Portugal<\/a> play <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/romania\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Romania<\/a> on Sunday evening and the outcome of that match could result in changes.<\/p>\n<p>Updated World Rankings \u2013 Top 15<\/p>\n<p>1. South Africa \u2013 93.94<br \/>2. New Zealand \u2013 90.33<br \/>3. Ireland \u2013 88.89<br \/>4. France \u2013 88.40<br \/>5. England \u2013 85.62<br \/>6. Argentina \u2013 84.98<br \/>7. Scotland \u2013 81.71<br \/>8. Australia \u2013 81.53<br \/>9. Fiji \u2013 81.14<br \/>10. Italy \u2013 79.81<br \/>11. Japan \u2013 74.09<br \/>12. Wales \u2013 73.62<br \/>13. Georgia \u2013 73.48<br \/>14. Uruguay \u2013 69.19<br \/>15. Spain \u2013 68.81<\/p>\n<p>*World Rugby will officially update the rankings at noon on Monday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland and Scotland are the big winners in the World Rugby Men\u2019s Rankings after the third round of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-440741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}