New world rankings after Ireland beat Scotland
02/10/2025 12:15 AM
The Six Nations tournament was always set to result in a shake up to the world rugby rankings, particularly as the likes of Ireland, France and England had the opportunity to make up ground on the Springboks, who aren’t in action until July.
That turned out to be the case on Sunday as Ireland claimed a comfortable 32-18 win over Scotland, improving their rankings tally from 90.78 to 91.65 to move to within just 1.13 rating points behind the Springboks.
CURRENT WORLD RUGBY RANKINGS:
| RANK | COUNTRY | POINTS |
| 1 | South Africa | 92.78 |
| 2 | Ireland | 91.65 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 90.36 |
| 4 | France | 87.19 |
| 5 | Argentina | 84.97 |
| 6 | England | 83.63 |
| 7 | Scotland | 83.57 |
| 8 | Australia | 81.52 |
| 9 | Fiji | 80.07 |
| 10 | Italy | 78.67 |
| 11 | Georgia | 73.85 |
| 12 | Wales | 73.75 |
| 13 | Japan | 72.95 |
| 14 | Samoa | 72.68 |
| 15 | USA | 70.02 |
| 16 | Portugal | 68.82 |
| 17 | Uruguay | 67.06 |
| 18 | Spain | 65.98 |
| 19 | Tonga | 65.46 |
| 20 | Romania | 63.01 |
On Sunday, Leinster and Ireland flyhalf Sam Prendergast was named Player of the Match in the round two clash against Scotland in Edinburgh.
Reflecting on his performance and the electric atmosphere at Scottish Gas Murrayfield, Prendergast said: “It was an unbelievable game and savage atmosphere, I couldn’t really believe it when the national anthems were being sung. I was trying to focus on the task at hand but that was pretty special.”
Ireland got off to a fast start, scoring 17 unanswered points in the first half before Duhan van der Merwe produced a bit of magic on the stroke of half-time. “I thought we started unbelievably in the game, we put so much pressure on them. It wasn’t perfect but we kept piling on moments,” Prendergast added.
“I thought we did really well in the second half when they got their purple patch to come back and think that shows a good bit of character from us. It wasn’t perfect but it was better than last week. We keep trying to get better week on week.”
When asked what it’s like to play in this Irish side, and how it supports his role, he answered: “If you look across our backline and the platform we get off our forwards, some of our backs like Jammo [Jamison Gibson-Park] inside me, and the lads in the centres, plus all the back three, it makes my job a lot easier. They are all world-class players, so it makes me look a little bit better.”
SIX NATIONS 2025 FIXTURES
ROUND 3
Saturday, 22 February
Wales vs Ireland
England vs Scotland
Sunday, 23 February
Italy vs France
ROUND 4
Saturday, 8 March
Ireland vs France
Scotland vs Wales
Sunday, 9 March
England vs Italy
ROUND 5
Saturday, 15 March
Italy vs Ireland
Wales vs England
France vs Scotland
WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN THE TOURNAMENT THIS YEAR?
Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211.
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