
England have leapfrogged New Zealand in the RLIF World Rankings to move up to second, behind Australia, after their Test Series victory in Autumn.
England won the series 2-1, courtesy of two hard fought victories at KC Stadium and Anfield, before a 34-0 defeat at Elland Road in the third Test. The move in the world rankings sees them close the gap on Australia, ahead of a busy international calendar in the run up to the 2021 World Cup on home soil for England.
“This is a good way to round off what has been a successful year for all our teams in the England Performance Unit,” said England director of rugby Kevin Sinfield. “We saw a good number of new faces come through into the senior England squad, some of them from the Knights programme who themselves had a successful trip to Papua New Guinea. It’s pleasing to see the investment we’ve made, in combination with Sport England, paying dividends and due credit for what has been an excellent team effort on and off the field.”
After winning the European Championships, France sealed their qualification for the 2021 World Cup and moved above Samoa and Scotland to sixth place. Among the other movers are Wales, who moved a place above Ireland to 11th after also qualifying for the World Cup, while first-time World Cup qualifiers Jamaica moved above USA, who they defeated for a place in the competition. Poland and Turkey also received their first formal recognition after taking part in the Emerging Nations’ World Championships in October.
Men’s World Rankings (Previous ranking in brackets)
1 (1) Australia
2 (3) England
3 (2) New Zealand
4 (4) Tonga
5 (5) Fiji
6 (8) France
7 (6) Samoa
8 (7) Scotland –
9 (9) Lebanon
10 (10) Papua New Guinea
11 (12) Wales
12 (11) Ireland
13 (13) Italy
14 (15) Jamaica
15 (14) USA
16 (18) Malta
17 (17) Serbia
18 (21) Hungary
19 (26) Greece
20 (19) Norway
21 (16) Canada
22 (27) Philippines
23 (UR) Poland
24 (34) Niue
25 (24) Czech Republic
26 (28) Netherlands
27 (42) Solomon Island
28 (22) Spain
29 (20) Russia
30 (30) Germany
31 (UR) Turkey
32 (33) Chile
33 (36) Vanuatu
34 (41) Japan
35 (25) Ukraine
36 (37) El Salvador
37 (32) Chile
38 (29) Sweden
39 (23) Belgium
40 (45) Hong Kong
41 (40) Colombia
42 (39) Argentina
43 (31) Cook Islands
44 (35) Denmark
45 (43) Brazil
46 (44) Uruguay
47 (46) Bulgaria
48 (47) Latvia
RLIF Women’s Rankings
1 (1) Australia
2 (2) England
3 (3) New Zealand
4 (4) Tonga
5 (5) Fiji
6 (6) France
7 (7) Samoa
8 (8) Scotland
9 (9) Lebanon