World Rugby has announced the biggest change to its rankings calculations in more than two decades.
The governing body has removed the home-ground weighting from both the men’s and women’s rankings systems, meaning teams will no longer receive an adjustment based on whether a Test is played at home or away.
World Rugby said that the update, set to come into effect from 1 July, is to “reflect an evolving competition landscape in the international game” with more neutral Tests taking place than before.
“This weighting saw the home team receiving an additional three rating points for calculation purposes, effectively cancelling out the advantage of playing at home and meaning winning at home often has a smaller impact on the rankings than winning away,” a World Rugby statement read.
“This also applied to host unions for major competitions, including men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups, Pacific Nations Cup, WXV Global Series and regional competitions.
“However, the international competition landscape has changed significantly in recent years and many tournaments are now played in centralised or out of country locations for strategic, commercial or financial reasons, meaning the home weighting often disadvantages the host team from a rankings perspective.”
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World Rugby Rankings (Top 20)
1. South Africa 93.94
2. New Zealand 90.33
3. Ireland 89.07
4. France 87.46
5. Argentina 84.97
6. England 83.91
7. Scotland 82.90
8. Australia 81.53
9. Fiji 81.14
10. Italy 79.64
11. Wales 75.07
12. Japan 74.09
13. Georgia 71.94
14. Portugal 69.64
15. Uruguay 69.19
16. USA 68.26
17. Spain 67.51
18. Chile 66.72
19. Tonga 66.66
20. Samoa 66.43
The post World Rugby makes big rankings call appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
World Rugby has announced the biggest change to its rankings calculations in more than two decades.
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