On the weekend that New Zealand claimed the World Rugby Pacific Four Series 2023 title with victory over the USA, there were minimal changes to the World Rugby Women’s Rankings powered by Capgemini.
The Black Ferns’ rating of 93.86 points remains unaltered following their 39-17 win over the Women’s Eagles, leaving them 0.69 points behind England in second place with their North American opponents still in seventh.
In the other Pacific Four Series fixture, Canada picked up 0.35 points for their Tyson Beukeboom-inspired 45-7 victory over Australia but their new rating of 84.35 is still not enough for them to improve on fourth place.
The gap between themselves and Australia in fifth is, however, now as many as 5.38 points.
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Meanwhile, Japan’s preparations for their involvement in WXV 2 in October took another positive step in the right direction after they completed their tour of Spain with a 2-0 series win.
Having comfortably beaten Spain 44-12 in the first encounter, which was a non-cap match, Lesley McKenzie’s team had to battle much harder to get the right result in the test at Estadio Pedro Escartín in Guadalajara, winning 27-19 after trailing by two points at the break.
Japan remain in 11th place in the rankings despite the win but they are now only 1.60 points away from catching Ireland and breaking into the top 10.
For Spain, though, the result did have a negative impact with Las Leonas falling to their lowest-ever position of 13th, on 65.23 points. They will hope to bounce back when they face Italy in their play-off this coming Saturday with the winner in Piacenza to join Japan in WXV 2 with the loser completing the WXV 3 field.