Big shake-up to world rankings as World Rugby removes home advantage factor

It marks the first major change to how rating points have been calculated since the men's rankings were introduced in October 2003, with the game's governing body citing the "evolving competition landscape in the international game" as a reason for the change.

Under the new system, the "home weighting" factor will be removed from both the men's and women's rankings.

World Rugby said the change reflects the growing number of neutral venues being used for Test matches, as traditional home-and-away hosting arrangements become less common across the international calendar.

"This weighting saw the home team receiving an additional three rating points for calculation purposes, effectively cancelling out the advantage of playing at home and meaning winning at home often has a smaller impact on the rankings than winning away," a World Rugby statement read.

"This also applied to host unions for major competitions, including men's and women's Rugby World Cups, Pacific Nations Cup, WXV Global Series and regional competitions.

"However, the international competition landscape has changed significantly in recent years and many tournaments are now played in centralised or out-of-country locations for strategic, commercial or financial reasons, meaning the home weighting often disadvantages the host team from a rankings perspective."

This year, several nations will technically be the home team while playing at a neutral venue, notably Fiji who will play all three of their 'home' Nations Championship matches in the United Kingdom, while Japan face off against Ireland in Australia in July.

The same is true for many of the Nations Cup fixtures, with Tonga hosting matches in the USA and Canada. Furthermore, the WXV Global Series Challenger will be played in a central location in Hong Kong.

World Rugby state that at present some 20 matches across international competitions are scheduled to take place in neutral locations before the end of 2026. This includes the clash between the Springboks and All Blacks in Baltimore, USA, which will be the final Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series Test.

Current men's World Rugby Rankings

(As of 19/06/2026)

1 South Africa 93.94
2 New Zealand 90.33
3 Ireland 89.07
4 France 87.46
5 Argentina 84.97
6 England 83.91
7 Scotland 82.90
8 Australia 81.53
9 Fiji 81.14
10 Italy 79.64
11 Wales 75.07
12 Japan 74.09
13 Georgia 71.94
14 Portugal 69.64
15 Uruguay 69.19
16 USA 68.26
17 Spain 67.51
18 Chile 66.72
19 Tonga 66.66
20 Samoa 66.43

READ MORE: Siya Kolisi: Springboks viewing Barbarians encounter as Test match