World Rugby Rankings

The Rugby World Cup Japan 2019 is within grasp and the recent International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) 2019 European, Americas and Asia-Oceania Championships taking place, we look at who is sitting on top of rugby’s summit.

IWRF World Rankings (September 2019)

The recent IWRF Asia-Oceania Wheelchair Rugby Championships took place in Korea, which featured Japan, Thailand, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and was won by Australia. NZ importantly claimed the qualifying spot to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The new rankings were updated by the IWRF (13th September) sees Australia hold on to top spot but Japan are now second. Korea remains in 14th and Thailand in 21st

1. 1. AUSTRALIA
   2. JAPAN
   3. UNITED STATES
   4. GREAT BRITAIN
   5. CANADA
   6. FRANCE
   7. DENMARK
   8. SWEDEN
   9. NEW ZEALAND
   10. BRAZIL

Other Asian countries ranked

14. KOREA
21. THAILAND
24. MALAYSIA
25. INDIA
34. CHINA

The 2019 World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge will take place in Tokyo, Japan during the RWC 2019 with 8 of the top-ranked nations.

World Rugby Men’s rankings: RWC 2019

With the RWC 2019 starting this Friday 20th September we look at how the countries are ranked going into the tournament. Over the recent weeks, the teams have been jostling for positions with results of RWC warm-up games and the Rugby Championship showing up a newly ranked #1 team on a weekly basis.

16 of the top men’s 23 ranked teams will be playing at the 2091 Rugby World Cup. Ireland head into the tournament with the number one ranking, the first time they have achieved this. On the bottom end, Namibia goes into Japan as the lowest-ranked team at #23 and Canada is just above them at #22.

The opening game on the 20th September pits the hosts Japan (#10) against Russia (#20).

1. IRELAND 
2. NEW ZEALAND
3. ENGLAND
4. SOUTH AFRICA
5. WALES
6. AUSTRALIA
7. SCOTLAND
8. FRANCE
9. FIJI
10. JAPAN
11. ARGENTINA
12. GEORGIA 
13. USA
14. ITALY
15. TONGA
16. SAMOA
17. SPAIN
18. ROMANIA
19. URUGUAY 
20. RUSSIA
21. PORTUGAL
22. CANADA
23. NAMIBIA
24. HONG KONG
25. NETHERLANDS

(Based on World Rugby 19th September 2019.)

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