The Super Series has resulted in the biggest shake-up at the top of the World Rugby Test Rankings since they were officially introduced last year.
Canada’s success in not only winning the Super Series 3-0, but winning all of the games comfortably against teams that were (in two cases) ranked higher than them, and on neutral ground as well sees them leap up the table into second place.
Even when running the rankings back to 1989, this is Canada’s highest ever positon.
England holds onto third place in the rakings as a result of the last play win over France in the second round of the Super Series, benefiting slightly because France were up to that moment higher than them. However that try, plus defeat to Canada at the weekend, sees France slip from second to fourth.
The United States also lose ground. Although defeat to higher ranked teams might be expected, the size of the defeats and the fact that the USA were at home contributed to their slide from 6th to 7th and puts them behind Australia.
It should be remembered that the World Rankings may be more than just of academic interest. The men’s rankings are important in deciding the seedings for their World Cup and (although this has not yet been confirmed) it must be very likely that they will at least have a significant input into deciding the pools at next year’s World Cup in Ireland.
The new top 10
Position | Teams | Points |
1(1) | New Zealand | 91.94 |
2(4) | Canada | 87.04 |
3(3) | England | 86.44 |
4(2) | France | 84.23 |
5(5) | Ireland | 82.89 |
6(7) | Australia | 79.88 |
7(6) | USA | 77.96 |
8(8) | Italy | 77.72 |
9(9) | Spain | 76.60 |
10(10) | Wales | 74.64 |