Top 15 Rugby Teams in the World

Rugby Play. Photo by Stefan Lehner on Unsplash

Top 15 Rugby Teams in the World

Rugby is a sport loved by many across the world. As per the World’s rugby governing body, the teams of World Rugby’s member nations are ranked based on their game results, with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, whereby points are awarded on the basis of the results of World Rugby-recognized international matches. Further, rankings are based on the team’s performance, with more recent results and more significant matches being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team. This gives an equal opportunity to all teams to compete favorably.

In this article we look at Top 15 Rugby Teams in the World as at the end of 2022 World Rugby season. This should just be used as guideline as positions keep changing after each and every game depending on team’s performances.

1. Ireland

Ireland at the 2008 RLWC. Author paddynapper. Wikimedia Commons

Playing  a fast paced, exciting brand of rugby as voiced by many, the Ireland Rugby team currently sit as one of the world’s best rugby union sides. In addition to this, they’re also one of the world’s most successful teams, with numerous titles on the international stage, enabling them to be highly placed. They are currently the top ranked team in the world and have competed. They also post good results at every Rugby World Cup tournaments.

On 16 July 2022 Ireland not only achieved this rare fit but also did it in style. They became just the fifth touring side and first in the professional era to achieve a series win in New Zealand, beating the All Blacks 22–32 in Wellington for a 2–1 series victory. This was their second time in their history to head the rugby world rankings.

They have a tall order to defend this position going forward. With two Six Nations campaigns around the corner, a World Cup on the horizon, and the ever present Champions Cup, 2023 could be a defining year for the world champions a whole host of Irish rugby players. Their super performance throughout the last season is thanks to James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne and Iain Henderson who are actually the engine of the team. They also have an advantage of possessing depth with the likes of Joey Carbery, Robbie Henshaw, James Hume, in great form.

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2. France

Rugby 2012 Six Nations France – Italy. Author Skadd77. Wikimedia Commons

To many rugby fans France deserve to occupy the number one spot but have been relegated to the second position. Why do we say so? Unbeaten in all 10 of their Tests in 2022, including a win over Ireland in the Six Nations, France are not only winning games but delivering the kind of flawed performances that suggests better days lie ahead. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship, which is played against five other European nations: England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.

They won this competition in 2022 thus pushing them to occupy the number 2 slot. It was not by fluke but from their impressive record, France has won 354 of their 635 test matches, a win record of 55.66%.  They have also participated in every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987, achieving runner-up position on three occasions. Their disciplinary record is also better than any of the other leading nations. There’s more. They averaged 29.8 points per match in 2022. Only New Zealand, with 32.3, was better.

 As hosts for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, France is the third-highest World Cup point’s scorers of all time, with 1585 points. They are also the third-highest try scorers, and the second-highest penalty scorers. They will be hoping to reclaim the number one position.

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3. New Zealand

New Zealand Rugby Team at the 2020 Olympics. Author Marshall Islands National Olympic Committee. Wikimedia Commons

New Zealand is often referred to as the aristocrats of world rugby, with a close loss against the All Blacks team becoming almost like a victory of sorts to any team. From research not only are the All Blacks the most successful rugby team ever to play the game, but they are the most successful sports franchise in history, considering their winning streaks. In addition to this, All Blacks players are just as popular as the All Blacks team itself. In fact, an All Blacks player has been voted as the World Player of the Year 10 times since 2001 and 15 former All Blacks players have been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame.

To win matches, tactically they have the best breakdown defense in the world and also boast of the highest points per game tally of any team and score the highest number of tries. In terms of individual players capable of turning the game around, they have Ardie Savea, who is an absolute superstar, a player who deserves to be placed on the same pedestal as Antoine Dupont. He is credited for destroying Ireland in the first Test of the summer tour and who launched the comeback that nearly decided the final game of that series.

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4. South Africa

Wales and South Africa rugby sevens teams at the 2010 Comm Games. Author Asish Maitra. Wikimedia Commons

You cannot talk about world rugby without mentioning South Africa. This is one of the most successful rugby union teams in history. Despite much hype about their brilliance performances in the past, South Africa fell from third to fourth place in the World Rugby Rankings after suffering a narrow defeat to Ireland in Dublin.

Statistically, the South African Springboks and the New Zealand All Blacks have held the number 1 ranking in the world rankings since its introduction in October 2003 for just over 93% of the time (with the New Zealand All Blacks holding the top spot for just over 80% of the time and the South African Springboks holding the top spot for just over 13% of that time). The remaining time at the top of the world rankings are shared between the leading Northern Hemisphere teams, England (the only Northern Hemisphere team to win a World Cup title in 2003), Wales, France and Ireland.

The Springboks as they are often referred to also share a record 3 World Cup titles (1995, 2007 and 2019) with the New Zealand All Blacks (1987, 2011 and 2015) and currently have an overall winning % against all nations (including the British and Irish Lions) except for the New Zealand All Blacks.

They not only have the depth to cope with injuries better than others but also possess a unique style of play which attracts crowds whenever they are playing.

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5. England

In the last three years, England have had mixed results. In the 2020 Six Nations Championship, having suffered a 24-17 defeat by France, they went on to record victories against Scotland at Murrayfield and Ireland and Wales at Twickenham. Unfortunately their momentum was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed with the matches played in empty stadia in October. With a bonus point win over Italy and France’s defeat of Ireland by eight points, they were declared overall winners of the championship on points difference.

As defending champions they finished fifth in the 2021 Six Nations Championship, beating France and Italy but losing to all three home nations for the first time since 1976 and conceding defeat to Scotland at Twickenham for the first time since 1983. In the 2021 autumn internationals England played three matches at Twickenham. They secured a 69-3 victory over Tonga, recorded their eighth successive victory against Australia and defeated world champions South Africa 27-26.

In the 2022 Six Nations Championship they finished third after defeating Italy and Wales but losing to Ireland, France and Scotland.

6. Australia

Australia is regular campaigners in Rugby World Cup competitions and has successfully managed to win it twice and finish as runner-up twice. Australia beat England at Twickenham in the final of the 1991 Rugby World Cup and won again in 1999 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff when their opponents in the final were France.

The Wallabies also compete annually in The Rugby Championship (formerly the Tri-Nations), along with southern hemisphere counterparts Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa. They have won this championship on four occasions. Australia also plays Test matches against the various rugby-playing nations.

In the 2022 World Rugby season they performed really well against the All Blacks, Ireland and France, but also lost tight games in the closing moments. This could be attributed to their injury list particularly in the absence for most of the season of Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper.

7. Scotland

As of 4 December 2022, Scotland stood at 7^th position in the World Rugby Rankings. They also had the leading try-scorer – Duhan van der Merwe – and the official player of the tournament, Hamish Watson. Chris Harris was on the best defensive centers. The back-row was an aggressive amalgam of carriers and spoilers. Then there was Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell. But, still they could not manage to be in the top three.

Playing a decent brand of rugby, they won three, could have won a fourth had Zander Fagerson not got himself sent off in a one-point game against Wales and might have sneaked a fifth had their line-out not collapsed to the tune of two successes from nine throws in a three-point game against Ireland.

Over the last two seasons, they have won as many Six Nations matches as England and Ireland and have one more win than Wales. To their credit they’ve conceded fewer tries and fewer points than anybody else. They also proved to be exciting against New Zealand. Throughout the 2022 they proved to the world that their back row is top class and their defense very tight.

8. Argentina

The national team, nicknamed Los Pumas, is considered a top tier nation by World Rugby, and has competed in the Rugby Championship since 2012 against Argentina, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. This arguably ought to have been altered in recent years to include Fiji and Japan. They climbed two places in the World Rugby Rankings after they claimed their first ever win against the All Blacks by 25-15 on 14 November 2020. They repeated this again on 14 November 2020 when they beat them again on New Zealand soil.

The Pumas’ impressive results since the 1999 World Cup have seen rugby’s popularity in Argentina grow significantly. Argentina has achieved several upset victories, and are capable of regularly defeating Six Nations sides. Their best ranking has been in third position achieved during the 2007 season.

9. Wales

Wales has competed annually in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the tournament (and its predecessors) outright 28 times, most recently in 2021. In the 2022 season Wales fell two places in the World Rugby Rankings after suffering a first-ever loss to Georgia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and beating Argentina. Japan, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Namibia, Romania, Georgia, Uruguay, Canada, USA, Spain and Portugal are teams that are considered Tier 2 rugby Nations.

10. Japan

 Japan, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Namibia, Romania, Georgia, Uruguay, Canada, USA, Spain and Portugal are teams that are considered Tier 2 rugby Nations. Amongst these, Japan is the highest ranked team at number ten. Not a mean achievement for the Asian country.

Their best performance was in the 2015 Rugby World Cup where they surprised South Africa by winning 34–32 in their first match of pool play, in what was described as the “greatest Rugby World Cup shock ever”. They did not stop there as they went on to beat Samoa and the United States in pool play but still failed to qualify for the quarter-finals. They performed well in the 2019 World Cup rugby where they reached the quarter finals stage as hosts.

11. Samoa

As part of the 2023 World Cup rugby, Samoa (also known as Manu Samoa) are ranked 11th in the world. They have participated in every Rugby World Cup since the 1991 tournament and the furthest they have reached is the quarter-finals.

Samoa qualified as 13th team of Rugby World Cup France 2023 after winning a double-header against Tonga (42-13, 37-15), confirming a 9th consecutive Rugby World Cup participation and are grouped with England, Japan, Argentina and Chile in Pool D. They will definitely be fighting to overcome the other teams to advance to the next stages of the competition.

Led by their captain Michael Alaalatoa, the Manu Samoa will be hoping to offer a strong challenge to the competition, notably through center Henry Taefu, hero of the qualifications against Tonga with 37 points scored. 

12. Italy

Italy climbed two places to 12th and gained 5.9 rating points on the back of five wins in 2022. This is their best return in a calendar year since they managed six wins in 2007. They achieved this by beating Australia 28-27.

Unfortunately, they lost all their matches in the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Six Nations tournaments, a losing run of 32 games. In consolation, in their final match of the 2022 Six Nations Championship Italy had an historic win over Wales. They scored a try in the 80th minute with the conversion in injury time to win by 22–21 at the Principality Stadium on 19 March 2022.

In France in 2023, Italy will be playing at a 10th Rugby World Cup and will be looking to make the quarter-finals for the first time. Finishing third in their pool in the last five editions, Italy will be looking to upset the odds and reach the knockout stages.

13. Georgia

Georgia national rugby team, also known by fans as Lelos is currently considered a second-tier rugby union nation and is one of the world’s fastest-growing rugby nations. One of their best games came in November 2022 when they beat Wales 13-12 in Cardiff. Due to the success of the Georgia Rugby team (they’ve won the Rugby Europe Championship 12 times), Georgia is considered to be one of the world’s fastest-growing rugby nations and one of the world’s most-improved sides.

Being looked at as minnows in world rugby, they have won nine of the last 10 titles in the Rugby Europe Championship or its equivalent, are not a side to underestimate on the world stage as their performance at Rugby World Cup 2015 showed. Georgia finished third in their pool in England which is their best performance in a Rugby World Cup with then captain Mamuka Gorgodze, their record try-scorer, named Player of the Match against New Zealand.

They will be playing in a sixth consecutive Rugby World Cup at France 2023 after finishing above the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Spain in the Rugby Europe Championship across 2021 and 2022.

14. Fiji

 Fiji is one of the few countries where rugby union is the main sport. According to research, there are approximately 80,000 registered players from a total population of around 950,000. One obstacle for Fiji is simply getting their rugby players to play for the national team, as many have contracts in Europe or with Super Rugby teams where the money is far more rewarding. They compete every four years at the Rugby World Cup, and their best performances were the 1987 and 2007 tournaments when they defeated Argentina and Wales respectively to reach the quarterfinals.

The Flying Fijians, Wales and Australia will battle for the third consecutive time after being drawn in the same pool for the Rugby World Cup 2023 in France. They will be going to France to try and win the trophy for the first time.

15. Tonga

The Tonga Rugby team also known as the ‘Ikale Tahi’ (Sea Eagles) are Tonga’s international rugby union side and are currently members of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance, alongside neighboring Polynesian nations Fiji and Samoa. They participate in Rugby World Cup tournaments, as well as the annual World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup, and are yet to win.

They qualified for the 2023 Rugby World Cup courtesy of a victory against Hong Kong whom they defeated 44-22 during the Asia / Pacific 1 playoff. They also produced the player of the match in scrum-half Sonatane Takulua, who led the Sipi Tau and scored half of the Tongan tries (3 out of 6).