A winless Nations Championship Southern Hemisphere Series has left Italy outside of the top 10 in the World Rugby Men's Rankings, with Saturday's 57-10 defeat to Australia resulting in a two-place fall to 12th.

Having enjoyed a good Guinness Men's Six Nations campaign, Italy went into the inaugural competition in good spirits, but they have been beaten on consecutive weekends by Japan, New Zealand and now the Wallabies.

While it was not quite a record defeat against Australia, the scale of the loss had a detrimental effect on the Azzurri's rating, which has fallen to 76.30 points, dropping them below Japan and Wales, who didn't lose any points for their respective defeats at the hands of the higher-ranked France and South Africa.

Japan re-enter the world's top 10 for the first time in three years as a result of Italy's demise, while Wales move up one place to 11th.

VIEW WORLD RUGBY MEN'S RANKINGS >>

Otherwise, the top 10 remains unchanged, albeit New Zealand, England and Scotland, who were all victorious at the weekend, improved their rating.

The All Blacks received 1.24 points for their convincing 40-21 win over Ireland to close the gap on South Africa at the top to 1.68 points, as well as putting more daylight between themselves in second and Ireland in third.

In the final match of the Southern Hemisphere Series, England just about held off Argentina to win 31-24 and boost their rating by 0.93 points.

England are now on 85.68 points, 1.75 points behind France in fourth, and one place above Scotland, who were rewarded for their 33-17 win over Fiji with a 0.69-point gain.

As the dominant teams in the World Rugby Nations Cup, pool leaders Georgia and USA cemented their place in the rankings in 13th and 14th, respectively.

Georgia beat Chile 49-22, while the Men's Eagles completed a clean sweep of victories with a 29-22 win over Spain, which takes their rating to over 70 points for the first time since November 2024.

Portugal are also unchanged in 15th after a 32-28 win over Tonga, while Chile despite the loss to Georgia have moved up to an all-time rankings high of 16th. This is because Spain and Uruguay, who were beaten by Hong Kong China with the last kick of the match, have seen their rating drop below Los Condores.

Romania's dramatic 38-37 comeback victory against Samoa has moved them up one place to 21st, directly below the Pacific Islanders.

Samoa have slipped back to their lowest-ever ranking of 20th, which has had a positive knock-on effect for Tonga, who are up to 19th despite their narrow defeat to Portugal.

Hong Kong China's heroics have lifted them one place to 23rd, above Canada despite their 23-19 win over Zimbabwe in Winnipeg.

The biggest climbers of the week were the Philippines, who jump nine places to 43rd after beating Singapore 33-10 in the semi-finals and then Malaysia 39-18 to win the Unions Cup 2026 in Thailand. Chinese Taipei finished third in the tournament and ended the week five places higher than they began it in 61st.