England go second in World Rankings

This year’s Women’s Six Nations have made little impact on the World Rankings, other than moving England into second place over France… by 0.07 of a point.

It is a result that may seem odd, as France won this year’s tournament. However World Rugby’s rankings look at the relative positions of each team before a game, and the lower a team is the more points a higher ranked team will lose (and the lower ranked team will gain) if there is a “surprise” result – so France’s loss to Wales three weeks ago cost them far more (nearly a full ranking point) than England’s loss to France last weekend.

Rank

Team

Points

Change

1

New Zealand

91.94

2 (+1)

England

86.34

-0.22

3 (-1)

France

86.27

-0.77

4

Ireland

82.89

-0.59

5

Canada

81.96

6

USA

81.09

7

Australia

79.88

8

Italy

77.72

+0.83

9

Spain

76.60

10

Wales

74.64

+0.76

11

Samoa

68.72

12

South Africa

68.51

13

Scotland

65.64

+0.00

World rankings in full

Although this was the only positional change, the three leading European teams all lost ground on top-placed New Zealand, who are now a relatively massive five-and-a-half points clear of England.

The big gains were made by Italy and Wales, who are both closing in on Australia and Spain respectively.

Scotland’s position is unchanged because the other five teams are ranked so far ahead that they do not suffer any penalty for a defeat. However should Scotland win next year (or even beat Spain in a World Cup qualifier, should Spain win the European Trophy later this year) then they could move up the ranking very quickly.