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The World Rugby Rankings is a ranking system for national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. The teams of World Rugby's member nations are ranked based on their game results, with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, with points being awarded on the basis of the results of World Rugby-recognized international matches. Rankings are based on the team's performance, with more recent results and more significant matches being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team. The men's ranking system was introduced the month before the 2003 Rugby World Cup, with the first new rankings issued on 8 September 2003, when they were called the "IRB Rankings".[2]
When the system was introduced England were the top team and maintained that position following victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. New Zealand took the lead from 14 June 2004.
After winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup final, South Africa became the third team to achieve first place. The first two fixtures of the 2008 Tri Nations resulted in the top two teams switching places: the All Blacks regained the top spot after defeating South Africa in the Tri-Nations opener on 5 July 2008 in Wellington; a week later the Springboks returned the favour in Dunedin, scoring their first win over the All Blacks in New Zealand since 1998, reclaiming the top spot, only for the All Blacks to defeat both Australia and South Africa in August 2008 to regain the top spot by a considerable margin. South Africa regained the lead in July 2009 after beating New Zealand in Bloemfontein and kept the lead until losing to France in November of that year, allowing the All Blacks to regain the top spot.
A change at the top would not occur for a record period of 508 weeks (from 16 November 2009 to 19 August 2019), when Wales became the top ranked team for the first time after defeating England at Cardiff in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test in August, following on a streak in which they won 15 of 16 tests, including a Six Nations Grand Slam. Two weeks later New Zealand returned to the top of the summit following Ireland's victory over Wales in Cardiff in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test. However, on 7 September 2019, Ireland defeated Wales again, this time in Dublin, and they were installed as the number 1 team for the first time in their history, which they held entering the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
The first round of matches in the 2019 Rugby World Cup saw a further change at the top, with New Zealand's pool stage victory over the Springboks seeing them regain the top spot. England's defeat of New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-finals saw them return to the top spot for the first time since 2004. A week later, South Africa reclaimed top spot after defeating England in the final.
2021 saw the ranking lead change several times with South Africa and New Zealand each holding the top spot at various points. In 2022, France replaced South Africa on top of the rankings following their victory over Japan in their summer tour and the Springboks' home defeat by a touring Wales team. A week later, Ireland claimed top spot following victory in their summer tour to New Zealand.
Ireland would hold the top spot until October 2023, when they lost to New Zealand in the quarter-final stage of the 2023 Rugby World Cup – with South Africa replacing them. However, following their away defeat to Argentina in the 2024 Rugby Championship, South Africa relinquished top spot to Ireland. The Springboks regained the no. 1 position after Ireland's home defeat to New Zealand during the 2024 Autumn Nations Series.
Since the rankings began, the winners of every edition of the World Cup have held the number 1 spot at the end of the tournament.
New Zealand have been the most consistently ranked #1 team since the introduction of the world rankings in 2003, having held the #1 ranking for most of the time during this period. South Africa is second, with Ireland, England, Wales and France making up the remainder.
To date, 2019 is the only calendar year in which more than three nations have held the number 1 spot – with five nations holding that title at some point during the year.
Below is a list of the best and worst ranking positions for nations that have appeared in the Rugby World Cup:
According to World Rugby the "top side in the World will normally have a rating above 90",[3] . New Zealand retained the number 1 position in August 2019 following defeat by Australia at Perth in the Rugby Championship, despite their ratings falling to 89.04. A week later, Wales increased their rating to 89.43 and claimed the top spot by beating England at Cardiff in a World Cup 2019warm-up test. In contrast, some countries that have reached a rating of over 90 rating points, such as Australia (91.75) and Ireland (91.17), did not achieve the top spot, although Ireland would eventually reach the top of the summit with a rating of 89.47 following their victory over Wales in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test in Dublin, while Australia still to date have never attained the number 1 ranked position. This is due to the success of New Zealand who had been rated above 90 rating points for a record of 509 weeks and 6 days (from 2 November 2009 to 11 August 2019), which ended following the aforementioned defeat to Australia.
New Zealand also holds the record for the highest rating points amassed by any team, which currently stands at 96.57. England first held the record at 93.99 on the 24 November 2003, following their World Cup win in Australia; however, New Zealand surpassed this on 28 August 2006 with a rating of 94.62, following their Tri Nations victory over South Africa in Pretoria. The All Blacks would go on to push this record further over the years, reaching 95.01 points on the 25 June 2007 after beating South Africa in Durban, 96.10 points after their 2015 World Cup win in England and 96.30 points on 22 August 2016, following their Rugby Championship victory over Australia in Sydney, to its current record of 96.57, which they attained on 10 October 2016 after defeating South Africa in Durban. New Zealand's defeat by Ireland at Soldier Field, Chicago as part of the Autumn International Test Series in November 2016 ended their record streak.
Below is a list of the most and least accumulated rating points for each of the nations that have appeared in the Rugby World Cup since the ranking tables were first published on the 13 October 2003:
Six national teams have led the world rankings, of which two had a single short stay at that position - Wales for two weeks in 2019, and France for one week in 2022. Either New Zealand or South Africa have led for over 90% of the time, with New Zealand having held no. 1 position for over 60% of the time.
New Zealand have spent over 14 years in the top spot, including a dominant nearly ten-year consecutive stretch from November 2009 to September 2019, highlighted by consecutive World Cup titles in 2011 and 2015 and seven Tri Nations/Rugby Championships. Both of these records (most weeks and most consecutive weeks) at no. 1 are unparalleled, but since relinquishing the top spot to Ireland in September 2019, they have only led for 11 weeks. New Zealand have led the rankings on 9 separate occasions, most recently in September 2025.
South Africa have topped the rankings on eight separate occasions for over six years collectively. They have led the rankings for the over 75% of the time since end of 2019, highlighted by consecutive World Cup titles in 2019 and 2023 and three Tri Nations/Rugby Championships. During this time, their closest challenger has been Ireland, who have led for over 70 weeks in 3 batches, mainly a 65-week consecutive stretch from 2022–2023 and highlighted by a 2022 Tour victory over New Zealand, plus a Grand Slam at the 2023 Six Nations Championship.
England have led for a total of 40 weeks across three stretches; two across 39 of the first 40 weeks of the rankings beginning just prior to their 2003 World Cup victory, followed by a record fifteen-year gap between reigns - the latter a 1-week stint between their semi-final win over New Zealand and final loss to South Africa at the 2019 World Cup.
New Zealand (twice, June 2004 to October 2007 and November 2009 to August 2019), South Africa (November 2019 to September 2021) and Ireland (July 2022 to October 2023) are the only sides to spend at least one-consecutive-year (effectively an entire season) on top of the men's world rankings.
Summary
All World Rugby member countries have been given a rating that is in the range of 0 to 100 with the top side achieving a rating of about 90 points. The point system is calculated using a 'Points Exchange' system, in which sides receive points from each other on the basis of the match result – whatever one side gains, the other loses. The exchanges are based on the match result, the ranking of each team, and the margin of victory, with an allowance for home advantage. As the system aims to depict current team strengths, past successes or losses will fade and be superseded by more recent results. Thus, it is thought that it will produce an accurate picture depicting the actual current strength and thus rank of the nations.[4] The rankings are responsive to results and it is possible to climb from the bottom to the top (and vice versa) in fewer than 20 matches. As all matches are worth a net of 0 points for the two teams combined, there is no particular advantage to playing more matches. A rating stays the same until the team plays again. Although matches often result in points exchanges, 'predictable' results lead to very minor changes, and may result in no change to either side's rating.
The system ensures that it is representative of the teams' performance despite playing differing numbers of matches each year, and the differing strength of opposition that teams have to face. The factors taken into account are as follows:
For each match played points exchanges are awarded for the following five outcomes and was developed using results of international matches from 1871 to the present day:
Different matches have different importance to teams, and World Rugby has tried to reflect this by using a weighting system, where the most significant matches are in the Rugby World Cup Finals. Points exchanges are doubled during the World Cup Finals to recognise the unique importance of this event. All other full international matches are treated the same, to be as fair as possible to countries playing a different mix of friendly and competitive matches. Matches that do not have full international status do not count.
A win against a very highly ranked opponent is a considerably greater achievement than a win against a low-rated opponent, so the strength of the opposing team is a factor. Thus match results are more important than margins of victory in producing accurate rankings. This is because when a highly ranked team plays a lowly ranked team and manages to beat them by over 50 points, it does not necessarily indicate how either team will perform in the future.
ポイント交換を計算する際、ホームチームは現在のレーティングよりも3ポイント高いレーティングとして扱われるため、不利な立場に置かれます。その結果、ホームチームは勝利時の獲得ポイントが少なくなり、敗北時の失点ポイントが多くなります。このため、ホームの観客の前でプレーすることによって得られるはずのあらゆるアドバンテージは、理想的には相殺されます。
[1] チームYの試合前のポイントランキングスコアを取ります。Yがホームアドバンテージを持っている場合、試合前のポイントランキングスコアに3を加えます。これがチームYの「修正された試合前のポイントランキングスコア」です。これを「A」と呼びます。
[2] チームZの試合前のポイントランキングスコアを取ります。Zがホームアドバンテージを持っている場合、試合前のポイントランキングスコアに3を加えます。これがチームZの「修正された試合前のポイントランキングスコア」です。これを「B」と呼びます。
[3] 2つの「修正された試合前ポイントランキングスコア」の差を計算します。それを「D」とします。
[4] このリストの該当する項目から公式を適用します。
ワールドカップの試合
...チームYが16点以上差をつけて勝利...............(10+BA)×0.3（上限6）
...チームYが15点差以下で勝利した場合...（10+BA）×0.2（上限4）
...試合は引き分けです[**注9参照]... D x 0.2、上限は2
...チームZが15点差以下で勝利...（10+AB）×0.2（上限4）
...チームZが16点以上差をつけて勝利...（10+AB）×0.3（上限6）
その他の国際
...チームYが16点以上差をつけて勝利...............(10+BA)×0.15（上限3）
...チームYが15点差以下で勝利した場合...（10+BA）×0.1（上限2）
...試合は引き分けです[**注9参照]... D x 0.1 上限1
...チームZが15点差以下で勝利...（10+AB）×0.1（上限2）
...チームZが16点差以上で勝利...（10+AB）×0.15（上限3）
[5] 「修正試合前ポイントランキングスコア」が高い方のチームが「本命」とみなされる。
[6] 「修正試合前ポイントランキングスコア」が低い方のチームは「アンダードッグ」と呼ばれることがあります。
[7] 「試合前修正ポイントランキングスコア」が対戦相手の「試合前修正ポイントランキングスコア」より10ポイント以上低いチームは「アウトサイダー」と呼ばれることがある。
[8] 「アンダードッグ」は「フェイバリット」よりも勝利からより多くの利益を得る可能性がある。
[9] 引き分けの場合は、「本命」から「弱者」または「アウトサイダー」にポイントが移される。移されるポイントは1（ワールドカップの試合では2）が上限である。
[10] 「本命」が「穴馬」に勝った場合、ポイントの移転はありません。
新規加盟国はすべて30.00ポイントからスタートしますが、これはテストマッチ10試合を完了するまでは暫定的なポイントです。国が合併する場合、新しい国は合併前の2つの国のうち高い方のレーティングを引き継ぎますが、例えば2010年にアラビア湾岸ラグビーユニオンチームが現在の加盟国を代表する別々のチームに分裂した場合のように、国が分裂する場合は、新しい国は元の国のレーティングよりも低い固定レベルのレーティングを引き継ぎます。
2012年12月1日以前は、新規加盟国には40.00ポイントが与えられていた。
数年間テストマッチに参加していない国は、ランキングシステムおよびリストから除外されます。再び参加するようになれば、以前のランキングが回復されます。
***ランキングの算出方法の詳細については、ワールドラグビーランキングのウェブサイトをご覧ください。