For England and Georgia, the immediate post-Rugby World Cup 2015 landscape looked very different.

While England faced a rebuilding job under new coach Eddie Jones after a bitterly disappointing early exit on home soil, Georgia's focus was on maximising the gains made at a tournament where they won two games for the first time and directly qualified for RWC 2019 as a result.

Five matches and five wins later, both are in a similarly upbeat mood as they look forward to a testing summer. 

England will head to Australia as the northern hemisphere’s top-ranked team, after supplanting Wales, while Georgia cemented their place in 12th with victory over Romania.

SIX NATIONS

Ranked eighth at the start of the Six Nations, England have climbed up to fourth on the back of wins over Scotland, Italy, Ireland, Wales and latterly France.

During the course of the Championship England picked up a total of 3.29 rankings points to reflect the momentum gained under Jones, while runners-up Wales lost a fraction under four-tenths of a point to drop to fifth.

A nerveless Owen Farrell kicked a penalty and converted both of England’s first half-tries, scored by Danny Care and Dan Cole, as the visitors took a 17-12 lead into half-time at the Stade de France. Farrell remained as reliable as ever off the tee after the break but it wasn’t until Anthony Watson touched down for his third try in as many matches that English nerves were put at ease.

Les Bleus had reserved their best performance of the Championship until last but seven penalties from Maxime Machenaud weren't enough to prevent them from slipping to a 31-21 defeat which consigned them to a bottom half of the table finish for the fifth consecutive year in the Six Nations.

North star

One major positive for Wales through an up-and-down Six Nations was the sight of George North back to his devastating best, the winger going one better than Watson in scoring his fourth try in as many games in Wales' record 67-14 victory against wooden spoon winners Italy.

Jacques Brunel leaves his post as Italy coach with the Azzurri ranked 14th in the world. His native France are unchanged, too, in eighth.

Dethroned champions Ireland rounded off their campaign with a 35-25 home win over a Scotland side who, with the defeat in Dublin, were denied a top half of the table finish for only the fourth time since the competition was expanded in 2000.

CJ Stander, Keith Earls, Conor Murray and Devin Toner all struck with tries as Ireland edged an incident-packed encounter, capitalising on pivotal yellow cards for John Barclay and Alex Dunbar.

For Scotland, Stuart Hogg continued his hot streak of form with another superb effort and the full-back was joined on the scoresheet by Richie Gray and Dunbar.

Ireland began the Six Nations as the sixth-ranked team and end it in seventh, while it is a case of as you were for Scotland who sit ninth but with a slightly improved points total from the start of February.

EUROPEAN NATIONS CUP DIVISION 1A

Title-winning Georgia ended another dominant European Nations Cup Division 1A campaign in style with a record 38-9 victory over rivals Romania in front of a crowd of more than 52,000 at the Dinamo Arena in Tbilisi.

It completed another clean sweep of wins for the Lelos for whom Mamuka Gorgodze turned into a titanic display in his first outing since Rugby World Cup 2015.

Despite having the better head-to-head record with 10 wins to Romania’s eight going into the match, the Lelos had never previously scored more than 30 points in matches between the two.

Two tries from Anton Peikrishvili and one from Sandro Todua saw them into a 19-9 lead at the break, all of Romania’s points came from the boot of Florin Vlaicu on the occasion of his 90th cap.

Tries for Giorgi Pruidze and Giorgi Nemsadze before the end of the third quarter put the game beyond any doubt before a typically physical game ended with a flurry of yellow cards and a last-minute try for Jaba Bregvadze.

Georgia gain 0.41 of a ranking point but stay 12th, while Romania hold on to 16th place despite the defeat.

Germany survive

At the other end of the table, Germany held the higher-ranked Spain to a 17-17 draw which proved enough for them to survive at this level after relegation rivals Portugal lost 53-21 at home to Russia. The Russians move above Uruguay into 19th place in the rankings as a result.

Germany will be joined in European rugby’s second tier by Belgium after the Black Devils won promotion as Division 1B champions.

Belgium were already assured of the title going into their final match against Poland and they came away with a 21-11 win – and an increase of just over three-quarters of a rating point.

With Germany only getting two hundredths of a rating point for their draw with Spain, it was enough to take Belgium above them and into 23rd place in the rankings. Germany and Hong Kong drop one place to 24th and 25th respectively.

Moldova remain 32nd in the rankings after a 22-13 Division 1B win against the Netherlands, who fall one place to 35th as a result with Switzerland the beneficiaries.

Georgia photos credit: Gogita Bukhaidze