All Blacks back on top of World Rugby rankings

Cape Town – Wales’ short reign at the top of the World Rugby rankings is over after their 11-match winning home run came to an end with Saturday’s 22-17 defeat to Ireland at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

According to the World Rugby website, with one-and-a-half rating points deducted from their total because of the loss, Wales now find themselves down in fourth position in the rankings with New Zealand, Ireland and England the sides to profit.

The All Blacks regain their position at the top of the rankings that they had held for an unbroken 509-week period prior to Wales’ 13-6 victory over England back on August 14, while Ireland, for whom Jacob Stockdale shone with a brace of first half tries, move up to second with the gap between the two teams just a fraction over half a point. England will go into their final Rugby World Cup 2019 warm-up against Italy at St James’ Park in Newcastle on Friday ranked third.

Scotland negotiated what appeared to be a difficult assignment away to Georgia, winning 44-10 at the Dinamo Arena in Tbilisi. Rory Hutchinson scored two of the Scots’ five tries on an historical night when they became the first tier one nation to play a Test in Georgia. The victory improved Scotland’s rating to 81.00 points and they remain in seventh.

The Springboks remain fifth ahead of their final World Cup warm-up against hosts Japan on Friday (12:15 SA time).

Top 20 in the latest World Rugby rankings:

1. New Zealand 89.40

2. Ireland 88.86

3. England 88.13

4. Wales 87.92

5. South Africa 86.83

6. Australia 84.05

7. Scotland 81.00

8. France 79.72

9. Fiji 77.43

10. Japan 77.21