There was a lot of movement in the World Rugby Men’s Ranking; the main result of the weekend undoubtedly belongs to Italy.
Italy had never beaten Australia in 18 previous tests, taking a thrilling 28-27 victory in Florence.
Italy led 28-22, but when Caderyn Neville scored Australia’s fourth try in the last minute, it looked like it would be more of the same.
However, Wallabies rookie Ben Donaldson missed what would have been the game-winning conversion and Italy celebrated a famous victory that lifts them to 11th place.
It is the first time they have been this high in the standings since November 18, 2013 and they are now just over a point behind Japan, the team immediately above them.
Wales were another big winner in the rankings with their hard-fought 20-13 win over Argentina and Australia’s defeat combined to result in a two-place rise to seventh.
Australia drop to eighth place, one away from their all-time low, while Scotland also drop one place to ninth after blowing a 23-14 lead to lose 31-23 to the All Blacks.
Like France, who beat South Africa 30-26 in another dramatic encounter, the All Blacks failed to score enough points in victory to improve their position and knock Ireland off the top of the rankings.
Ireland remain on 90.63 points after posting their 11th consecutive home win, this time against Fiji; France remains second with 90.01, New Zealand third with 89.15 and South Africa fourth with 87.81 points.
Samoa recovers
Outside the top 10, Samoa moved up two places to 12th place thanks to a 20-19 win over Georgia, an impressive comeback from the Samoans who had lost 49-17 to Italy the week before.
With Italy and Samoa rising, Fiji falls two places to 13th and Georgia falls one place to 14th, its lowest ranking since January 2020.
Having met twice in Montevideo in July, sharing the series 1-1, Los Teros played Romania again this weekend, this time in Bucharest.
Los Teros followed up their victory on their last visit there in 2018 with a 21-16 victory and now moved up to 16th place and Los Robles dropped to 20th place.
The USA and Portugal swap places with the Eagles now ahead of Os Lobos following their respective wins over Hong Kong and Kenya in the Rugby World Cup 2023 Final Qualifying Tournament. next year in the final round of matches, the 18th place will be up for grabs this Friday.
Elsewhere, Switzerland’s perfect start to the Rugby Europe Trophy continued with a second victory of the season. The Swiss beat Lithuania 45-6, adding a bonus point, and lead the standings with a maximum of 10 points out of 10.
With the Netherlands also losing 37-25 at home to Canada, the win moved Switzerland above the Netherlands and into 28th place.
RANKINGS – WORLD RUGBY
1 (1) Ireland 90.63
2 (2) France 90.01
3 (3) New Zealand 89.15
4 (4) South Africa 87.81
5 (5) England 84.45
6 (6) Argentina 82.04
7 (9) Wales 81.26
8 (7) Australia 80.64
9 (8) Scotland 80.23
10 (10) Japan 77.39
MAIN ASCENTS
7 WALES +2
12 SAMOA +2
16 URUGUAY +2
18 US +2
11 ITALY +1
World.Rugby
credits: World.Rugby