New World Rugby rankings as England and France fall…

New World Rugby rankings as England and France fall and Italy climb after impressive win

A dramatic opening weekend to summer Test rugby has seen a major reshuffle in World Rugby's official rankings, with six of the top eight teams all moving around the table.

The All Blacks, Australia and Argentina have all risen while France, England and Scotland have dropped, with the world champions South Africa retaining their number-one spot despite New Zealand's win over Ireland, with Wales, Ireland and Japan also remaining unmoved.

Kicking off with the first big Test from Saturday, France's 42-23 win against Japan in Toyota made it nine wins on the bounce for Les Bleus (one short of their all-time record), adding 0.37 of a point to their rankings score. However, it wasn't enough of a cushion to prevent the All Blacks, who avenged their autumn defeat to the Irish with a 42-19 win over Andy Farrell's men at Eden Park in Auckland, from leapfrogging France, who drop from second to third to swap places with Ian Foster's Kiwis. Ireland remain fourth in the rankings table.

Australia, meanwhile, ended an eight-game losing streak against England with a 30-28 victory despite a 34th-minute red card for Darcy Swain, allowing Dave Rennie's Wallabies (who headed into the clash sixth in the world) to climb a place to swap with Eddie Jones' England.

Already knowing the result of New Zealand v Ireland, South Africa went into their opening summer Test against Wales knowing anything less than victory at Loftus Versveld would see them toppled from their position as the world’s number-one-ranked team. For the majority of the drama-filled encounter in Pretoria, it looked like the Springboks would be renouncing their place at the top of World Rugby's table, before they sealed a win with the last kick of the game to complete a 32-29 comeback victory much to the misery of Welsh fans who, for much of the game, had been preparing to celebrate a first-ever win on South African soil.

The 'Boks did not pick up any additional points for the win, though, due to the large points differential between the teams before home advantage was factored in. Both teams' positions in the table are unchanged, with South Africa at number one and Wales in ninth.

The day's schedule of Tests was completed by Argentina's 26-18 victory over Scotland to provide another swap in the table, with Los Pumas now seventh and Gregor Townsend's Scots eighth.

Further down the table, Fiji began their bid for a sixth title with an emphatic 36-0 win against Tonga in the World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup. But the win did not improve their rating due to the points difference before kick-off, so Fiji remain 11th while Tonga remain 16th.

Italy, meanwhile, jumped two places to 12th thanks to an impressive 45-13 win against Romania in Bucharest, resulting in Georgia and Samoa both dropping down a place to 13th and 14th respectively. Romania lost as many places as Italy gained to now be 19th in the world, resulting in the USA and Uruguay improving their ranking by one place to 17th and 18th respectively.