Brazil are one place off matching their all-time best of 25th in the World Rugby Rankings after getting their 6 Naciones Sudamericano campaign off to a winning start with a 28-12 victory against Chile in Sao Paulo.
Argentina XV and Uruguay XV also enjoyed opening day wins in South America’s rebranded elite competition, but neither of their games, against Paraguay and Colombia, counted towards the rankings.
Brazil’s biggest ever win over Los Condores was worth 0.91 of a point, though, and that was enough to lift them above the Netherlands into 26th place.
Chile started the day less than one point and one place behind their hosts, but they are now 2.78 points and five places in arrears, Germany, Kenya and Korea all benefitting from their loss to move up one place.
Os Tupis led 15-0 at half-time thanks to a penalty from Josh Reeves and tries from inside centre Moisés Duque and rampaging tight-head prop Jardel Vettorato, Reeves converting the latter.
Full-back Lucas Tranquez finished off a well-worked set-piece move to score Brazil’s third try early in the second half, and Reeves’ conversion extended the advantage to 22-0.
Chile then hit back with two tries in quick succession and when Tomás Ianiszewski converted Juan Pablo Perrotta’s score, shortly after Pedro Verschae ran in an interception from halfway, the visitors only found themselves 10 points adrift.
But Brazil managed the final quarter well and closed out the game with two penalties from the boot of Reeves.
Ukraine up four
Ukraine have had an indifferent season in Rugby Europe Conference 1 North, but they signed off with a 32-14 win against Latvia to secure second place in the table behind champions Lithuania. Their first away win in two years was worth 1.59 rating points and takes them up to 38th, a rise of four places.
Maksym Kovalevskyi scored the only try of the first half in Riga and fellow winger Oleg Kosariev kicked a penalty as Ukraine led 8-6 at the break.
Number eight Ruslan Radchuk crossed for a converted try two minutes after the restart and the score stayed at 15-6 until the hosts responded through Tom Asejevs’ five-pointer.
Only one score separated the sides with just under half an hour remaining, but Ukraine pulled away again when flanker Serhii Cherniachenko scored another converted try, Kosariev once again proving reliable off the tee to add the conversion.
Ukraine came out of prop Roman Kulakivskyi’s sin-bin period with a net two-point gain after hooker Mykola Kirsanov cancelled out a penalty from Latvian full-back Robbie Davidsons with a fourth try for the visitors, Kosariev converting for a 29-14 scoreline.
Kosariev made it 32-14 with a late penalty as Ukraine played out the final few minutes with 14 men following a second yellow card with replacement Bohdan Poplavskyi the offender on this occasion.
In Conference 1 South, Andorra and Croatia fought out an 18-18 draw, a result which sees the Pyrenees principality move up one place to 69th at Bosnia and Herzegovina’s expense. Despite the defeat, Croatia find themselves ranked one place higher in 55th due to Latvia’s loss of points.
Bulgaria, ranked 95th, took top honours in the Rugby Europe Development division with a 39-25 win at home to Turkey. Rating points were not awarded though as Turkey are not members of World Rugby.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong began their Rugby World Cup 2019 qualification bid with a 67-8 victory against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. The result did not improve their ranking, though, due to more than 13 rating points and 22 places between the sides before play began.
Photo credit: Joao Neto/Fotojump