World Rankings: Italy's long-awaited return to top 10
NEWS: After sharing the spoils with France in Round Three of the Six Nations, Italy have returned to the top 10 of the World Rugby Men’s Rankings for the first time since June 2013.
Sunday’s dramatic 13-13 draw against France in Lille earned the Azzurri one point to improve their overall rating to 76.58 points and send them above Fiji.
Italy would have moved to within one place of their highest-ever position of eighth had Paolo Garbisi’s last-gasp penalty gone through the poles instead of striking the upright.
It also denied Italy their first-ever Six Nations victory over France in France, with their only previous win over Les Bleus on French soil coming in Grenoble in 1997.
France remain in fourth place despite losing a whole rating point.
The draw – only the eighth in the competition’s history – rounded off another enthralling weekend of Six Nations action, which brought home wins for Ireland and Scotland In Saturday’s two games.
Ireland made it three bonus point wins out of three, scoring their fourth try in the last move, with a 31-7 victory over Wales at Lansdowne Road.
However, as they were 12.57 rating points better off than Wales going into the match in Dublin before home weighting was factored in, the outcome did not affect either team’s rating.
Reigning champions Ireland remain second behind South Africa on 92.11 points, while Wales are eighth on 79.54.
A fourth consecutive Calcutta Cup win over England brought Scotland much closer to their oldest rivals in the rankings but the 30-21 scoreline was not enough for the teams to swap places.
Sitting in fifth, England went into the match with a 2.56-point advantage over Scotland but that has now been trimmed to just 0.64 points.
A win by more than 15 points was needed for Scotland to leapfrog their beaten opponents and match their all-time high of fifth.
