World Rugby Rankings: Springboks still reign No. 1

The Springboks’ 2.43 rating points advantage at the summit of Test rugby rankings remain unscathed, at least for the next two weeks, after Ireland failed to gain ground on the world champions.

The updated World Rugby Test Men’s Rankings show that only three teams improved their rating as a result of this weekend’s results.

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SPRINGBOKS REIGN SUPREME IN WORLD RUGBY RANKINGS

Fortunately for the Springboks, their closest rivals at the top of the rankings — Ireland — aren’t one of those team who’ve improved their standing.

After two extremely close Six Nations games on Saturday, the competition’s solitary match on Sunday ended in a 36-0 win for Ireland against Italy.

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But no points were awarded the reigning champions though, due to the 16.53 points and nine-place difference between Ireland in second and Italy in 11th before home advantage was factored in.

The Springboks, sitting on 94.54 ratings points, thus boast a healthy 2.43 lead over the next best Test team Ireland, who are on 92.11 points.

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BEST OF THE REST

France were the team to gain the most with 1.12 points awarded to them for their nerve-racking 20-16 victory away to Scotland.

Les Bleus now have a rating of 87.39 points which, while not enough to improve on fourth place, closed the gap between themselves and New Zealand to 2.41 points.

Scotland lost an equal amount of points in defeat but keep hold of sixth place, with Argentina still 2.65 points behind them in seventh.

England, ranked in fifth, only picked up 0.08 points for their equally tense 16-14 win over Wales, to leave them further in arrears of France than before. Wales stay in eighth place, still comfortably ahead of Australia.

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THE LATEST WORLD RUGBY RANKINGS BELOW: