World Rankings: Golden opportunity for Italy to make history
SPOTLIGHT: World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for this weekend’s Round Three Guinness Six Nations and Rugby Europe Championship.
In three of the seven matches taking place this weekend in the Six Nations and the Rugby Europe Championship, the lower-ranked teams can climb above the opposition.
Ireland will climb above England into fourth if they win the opening Six Nations match of round three in Twickenham.
A winning margin of more than 15 points would result in Ireland climbing above both England and France to sit third.
This is because France cannot improve their rating of 88.40 by beating Italy on home soil, a consequence of the 8.59 point differential between the teams before home weighting is factored in.
Ireland will improve their own rating to 88.89 with a win by more than 15.
England will reclaim third place from France if they win by more than 15 points or by a smaller margin if Les Bleus fail to beat Italy.
A beaten France could fall as many as two places, depending on the margin and the outcome of the England-Ireland match.
Ireland cannot fall any lower than fifth this weekend, even with an emphatic defeat.
An all-time high of seventh is again within Italy’s grasp if they can upset France and Scotland do not beat Wales by more than 15 points.
Italy are guaranteed seventh place if they win by more than 15 points, regardless of what Scotland does in Cardiff.
However, if Italy fail to win, then Scotland will move up two places – above Fiji and Australia – with victory over Wales.
Scotland will move up two places with a win over Wales.
Wales will drop below Japan into 12th if they suffer a 14th consecutive Men’s Six Nations defeat.
They could lose an additional place if Georgia also beat Spain in a repeat of the 2025 Rugby Europe Men’s Championship final, and one of the margins is by more than 15 points.
Spain will climb above Uruguay to match their highest ranking of 14th if they beat Georgia, but a win by more than 15 points will see them move above the Lelos for the first time since the rankings were introduced in October 2003.
A 16th consecutive loss to Georgia will not result in a fall from 15th for Spain.
Portugal will climb one or two places depending on the margin of victory over Romania.
However, defeat will see Os Lobos slip back below Samoa into 20th.
Romania cannot improve on 21st place with a victory, as a win by more than 15 points will still leave them 0.05 rating points behind Portugal.
Switzerland sit one place below their visitors in 28th, but victory will be enough to see them swap places with the Netherlands and move to within one of their all-time highs.
The Dutch will climb above Namibia in victory and gain another place if Belgium lose to Germany.
Belgium cannot improve their rating by beating the lower-ranked Germany, so they will remain 23rd in victory, but could fall as many as four places in defeat depending on the margin and outcome of Switzerland v Netherlands.
