World Rankings: Why the Boks remained second despite Rugby Championship win

The Springboks surrendered top spot after their 29-28 defeat to Los Pumas in round five of the tournament and have not returned to the summit despite their 48-7 win in Nelspruit.

The victory in Mbombela sealed a first Rugby Championship title for South Africa since 2019.

It is also the first time that any side other than New Zealand has won a full edition of the tournament with the Springboks and Wallabies winning truncated editions in 2019 and 2015 respectively.

Due to the 7.47 points difference between South Africa and Argentina before home weighting was factored in, the Springboks were unable to reclaim the top spot or earn any rating points with a victory over Los Pumas.

This meant that even with the crushing victory, they remained in second place behind Ireland. South Africa stay on 91.77 rating points with Ireland remaining in the top spot on 92.12 ahead of the Autumn Nations Series.

Meanwhile, a similar case occurred in the other Rugby Championship match this weekend as the All Blacks were unable to improve their rating with a victory over the Wallabies.

New Zealand headed into the clash with a 9.38 rating point advantage over Australia before home weighting was factored in.

Therefore, their 33-13 victory did not improve their rating while Australia and Argentina did not lose any rating points in defeat.

The results during the Rugby Championship mean that Ireland head into the Autumn Nations Series at the top of the rankings followed by South Africa, New Zealand, France, England, Argentina, Scotland, Italy, Fiji and Australia who make up the top 10.

Ireland are set to put their No 1 ranking on the line when they face the All Blacks in their opening game of the November internationals, before also taking on Argentina, Fiji and Australia.

South Africa will face off against Scotland, England and Wales while New Zealand will also clash with Japan, France and Italy to conclude their international season.

Joe Schmidt's first year in charge will conclude with match-ups against England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland while Los Pumas face Italy, Ireland and France.

Latest World Rankings

1 Ireland 92.12

2 South Africa 91.77

3 New Zealand 88.70

4 France 86.96

5 England 85.40

6 Argentina 84.30

7 Scotland 82.82

8 Italy 79.98

9 Fiji 79.64

10 Australia 79.32

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