England’s first defeat by Scotland at Twickenham since 1983 has cost them second place in the World Rugby Rankings, with the All Blacks now the closest team to South Africa.
After slumping to an 11-6 defeat by the Scots on the opening weekend of the Six Nations, Eddie Jones’ side have dropped two rating points and they are now in third place in the standings, a fraction under one-and-a-half points behind the second-ranked All Blacks.
The historic victory boosted Scotland’s points tally to 82.82, but that wasn’t quite enough for them to improve on their position of seventh prior to kick-off. They are, however, now only a quarter of a point adrift of Australia in sixth, and will leapfrog the Wallabies if they beat Wales at Murrayfield this coming weekend.
The 1.23 rating points claimed by Wales for their 21-16 victory over 14-man Ireland move them move above Argentina in the rankings and into eighth place. Ireland remain in fifth place despite the setback.
France were never in line to pick up any additional points because of the large points differential between themselves and Italy, who slipped to their 28th consecutive Six Nations defeat. With no rating points lost, Italy remain in 14th place in the rankings.
World Rugby rankings (Top 10):
1. South Africa (94.20 points)
2. New Zealand (88.95)
3. England (87.49)
4. France (85.30)
5. Ireland (83.42)
6. Australia (83.03)
7. Scotland (82.82)
8. Wales (80.59)
9. Argentina (80.31)
10. Japan (79.29)
Photo: TBC
