Latest World Rugby rankings: Ireland close in on Springboks as England climb

The weekend's action kicked off with Italy's historic 22-15 victory over Wales in Rome with the Azzurri going back-to-back over the Welsh for the first time ever.

That was followed by England's shock 26-25 win over France at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.

Ireland wrapped up the weekend's action with an 11th successive win over Scotland, defeating Gregor Townsend's men 32-18 at Murrayfield Stadium.

England's victory over France saw them leapfrog Scotland into sixth place in the rankings.

Les Bleus did not drop from their fourth-place ranking even after the reduction of 1.32 rating points as they still hold a 2.22 buffer over fifth-placed Argentina.

Ireland's victory over Scotland on Sunday saw them close the gap on South Africa to 1.42 rating points. But even if Ireland claim convincing victories in their remaining Six Nations matches, they will not be able to surpass the Springboks in the rankings.

It wasn't just the Six Nations teams in action, with Georgia, Portugal, Romania and Spain notching up victories over the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland respectively in the Rugby Europe Championship.

Those results not only saw the quartet secure semi-final spots in the tournament but also qualification for the 2027 Rugby World Cup with Georgia also moving up the rankings.

Lelos did not earn any ranking points from their 40-7 victory over the Netherlands but did move ahead of Wales into 11th position and are now placed higher than the Welsh for the first time in their history.

Georgia are now in their joint-highest-ever ranking while 12th is the lowest Wales have ever been ranked.

The other three Rugby Europe Championship teams did not improve their ranking positions despite their wins.

Rugby World Rankings

1 South Africa 92.78

2 Ireland 91.36

3 New Zealand 90.36

4 France 87.19

5 Argentina 84.97

6 England 83.63

7 Scotland 82.99

8 Australia 81.52

9 Fiji 80.07

10 Italy 78.67

11 Georgia 73.85

12 Wales 73.75

13 Japan 72.95

14 Samoa 72.68

15 USA 70.02

16 Portugal 68.82

17 Uruguay 67.06

18 Spain 66.44

19 Tonga 65.46

20 Romania 63.98

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