World Rugby has announced details of the first-ever official global ranking system for women’s test rugby, with New Zealand the first team to top the rankings, France in second place and England third.
The rankings were introduced after a comprehensive process of obtaining and analysing every result from the first official women’s international matches dating back to 1987 and are based on the same criteria as the men’s rankings.
Fans will not have to wait long for some big rankings clashes as three of the top five teams will go head-to-head during this year’s RBS 6 Nations, which kicks off this weekend.
The new system, which comes into effect from 1 February 2016, will be a weighted system with the number of points available to the winning team proportional to the difference in ranking points between the teams prior to the match.
Introduction of the women’s rankings furthers anticipation ahead of an exciting 18 months of test rugby that will culminate in the much-anticipated Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 in Ireland.
World Rugby Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “World Rugby is committed to driving forward the competitiveness of the women’s game and the new rankings are yet another significant milestone.
“After the success of Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2014 and the excitement building up to the next edition in 2017 in Ireland, it’s vital for international teams to have a rankings focus that will drive exposure and interest as well as increasing the competition schedule, as it encourages member unions to play more test matches.
“It’s a positive step for one of the fastest growing team sports in the world, as it brings parity with the men’s game. Today’s announcement also comes as a timely boost ahead of what will be an exciting Women’s Six Nations Championship.”
World Rugby explain the rankings here.
Rachael Burford (Photo World Rugby)
Women’s Rugby World Cup winner with England, Rachael Burford, who also sits on the Rugby Committee and Athlete’s Commission, added: “It’s great to see an official rankings system introduced to the women’s game.
“I believe the rankings will really add an extra competitive edge for the upcoming RBS 6 Nations and other international test matches in the future, which can only be good for the game. The rankings will also give an extra boost to the promotion of the women’s game around the world.”
The criteria for the World Rugby Women’s Rankings are in keeping with the men’s rankings system and will be updated after all women’s test matches.
- World Rugby World Rankings are calculated using a ‘points exchange’ system, in which sides take points off each other based on the match result. Whatever one side gains, the other loses.
- As a result of the relatively small number of matches compared to the men’s and the discrepancies in the number of matches played by different unions, the effect that one result will have on the rankings could unfairly skew the result. To combat this effect, it has been decided to start all teams out on 80 ranking points in 1987, then for each year between 1987 and the year that an individual union played their first women’s full international match two points are deducted from their total.
- This deduction occurs up until 2007, so if a team plays their first ever full international after 2007 then they will begin with 40 ranking points.
Similar to the men’s rankings, teams will be penalised an equivalent amount to a loss to a significantly lower ranked team per year if they do not play any matches in the space of two calendar years.
The full rankings are:
1 New Zealand 92.08
2 France 87.18
3 England 86.71
4 Ireland 83.61
5 Canada 82.12
6 USA 81.23
7 Australia 80.03
8 Italy 76.97
9 Spain 76.60
10 Wales 74.00
11 Samoa 68.74
12 South Africa 68.56
13 Scotland 65.72
14 Portugal 64.00
15 Netherlands 63.57
16 Kazakhstan 62.25
17 Japan 60.83
18 Sweden 59.83
19 Russia 57.67
20 Germany 57.67
21 Belgium 54.49
22 Trinidad & Tobago 52.45
23 Hong Kong 51.27
24 Mexico 48.00
25 China 46.68
26 Denmark 46.68
27 Jamaica 46.52
28 Indonesia 46.00
29 Guyana 45.63
30 Romania 44.95
31 Norway 44.86
32 Kenya 44.35
33 Argentina 44.00
33 Bosnia & Herzegovina 44.00
35 Fiji 43.95
36 Thailand 42.34
37 Singapore 42.25
38 Poland 42.00
39 Uzbekistan 41.40
40 Cayman Islands 40.95
41 Switzerland 40.91
42 Tonga 40.05
43 Uganda 39.65
44 Luxembourg 38.83
45 Finland 38.82
46 Brazil 38.00
47 Serbia 37.79
48 Barbados 36.06
49 Saint Vincent 34.71
50 Bahamas 33.67
51 Philippines 30.00
52 Czech Republic 28.70
Report courtesy of World Rugby
