World Rankings: France and Ireland the big winners
NEWS: There are some changes in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings after the latest round of fixtures in the Six Nations and Rugby Europe Championship.
By denying Wales a Grand Slam, France have moved up to third in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings, with only South Africa and New Zealand ahead of them, while Wayne Pivac’s shell shocked side drop from fifth to sixth.
In Dublin, Ireland were on course to overtake England in the rankings until Jonny May’s late consolation try for the visitors closed the gap sufficiently to prevent them slipping lower than fourth. Ireland move up one to fifth as a result of their convincing 32-18 victory in Dublin.
The opening match of ‘Super Saturday’ went to form with an emphatic 52-10 win for Scotland over Italy.
It concluded Italy’s worst-ever Six Nations in terms of points and tries conceded and they finish the campaign ranked one place lower than when they started it in 15th. As heavy favourites, Scotland did not get any additional rating points for the victory and they remain in ninth place in the rankings.
Meanwhile, Romania traded ranking places with Spain, with the teams now in 18th and 19th, respectively, after a 22-16 win over Los Leones in the second round of the Rugby Europe Championship 2021 in Bucharest.
