Rugby Power Rankings

TheSouthAfrican.com Rugby Power Rankings 2022. Photos; AFP/Backpagepix

Rugby power rankings in 2022: Who are the best in the world?

Here we look back on 2022 to come up with our Test Rugby power rankings, find out who makes our tope ten.

Rugby Power Rankings

TheSouthAfrican.com Rugby Power Rankings 2022. Photos; AFP/Backpagepix

The World Rugby rankings can be a divisive way of measuring the performances of top teams, and here we look back on 2022 to come up with our own subjective power rankings.

The ten best Rugby teams in 2022

Here we look at the teams that made the biggest impact on Test rugby in 2022.

10 Italy 

Italy hooker Giacomo Nicotera celebrates at the end of the Test match.
Italy hooker Giacomo Nicotera (middle) ceelbrates. Image: Filippo Monteforte/AFP.

Italy finished the year ranked outside the top ten, but for the first time in a long time there is reason for positivity in Italian rugby. 

The expanded United Rugby Championship has reinforced their talent pipeline and they have some exciting talents on their hands.

Fullback Ange Capuozzo has been particularly dazzling this term and he was rewarded with a World Rugby award.

9 Wales

Springboks Wales
A much-changed Springbok 23-man team lost to Wales in Bloemfontein. Photo: Backpagepix

Wales are in the top ten but of all these teams they have the gravest concerns about the direction of their rugby.

Wayne Pivac has been sacked a year out from the World Cup with Warren Gatland brought back.

Wales are likely to revert to a more setpiece based game under Gatland. However despite their poor year Wales will be expected to get out of what is a fairly weak Rugby World Cup pool that they share with Australia, Fiji, Georgia and Portugal in 2023.

8 Scotland

Scotland vs South Africa
Scotland player Finn Russell kicks in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Scotland haven’t so much regressed as stagnated just a little, holding onto their position as a top nation just barely.

They ran both the All Blacks and Wallabies close but couldn’t claim a statement win in 2022 apart from their Six Nations opener when they ran out winners over England.

Gregor Townsend’s direction for the team has been questioned in some quarters but it appears as if he will be the man to take Scotland into a very tough Rugby World Cup campaign in 2023.

7 England

Franco Mostert Springboks vs England
Springboks lock Franco Mostert secures the possession against England.

Whether axing Eddie Jones a year out from the World Cup was a good idea remains to be seen, but it seems that England are being made to regret keeping him on after the 2019 World Cup.

England have a great talent pool but their national team just hasn’t looked as imposing as they typically are on the park.

They have escaped a few close calls but there will be a lot of nations that look at England right now and see a team ripe for the upset, and part of that is down to a difficult transition period which should perhaps have started sooner.

6 Argentina

Argentina
Argentina sing their anthem. Photo: SA Rugby website

Argentina are always hard-pressed to get anything out of the Rugby Championship but they gave one of their best showings in 2022.

Despite a difficult domestic rugby situation, Argentina are once again in an upswing off the back of the efforts of a handful of stars.

The Pumas will be eager to build on their huge first-time win over the All Blacks, which served as the ultimate confidence booster as anyone knows if you can beat the All Blacks you can beat anybody.

The Five best rugby teams in 2022

5 Australia

Nic White Rugby
Wallabies scrumhalf Nic White. Photo: Getty Images

Considering the utter turmoil Rugby Australia has been in the performance of the Wallabies, while inconsistent, is at times encouraging.

Australia can hold their own against the best in the world but have a few too many loose cannons aboard the good ship Wallaby at times.

Discipline, bizarre decision-making, gamesmanship and play-acting are the cons of their 2022.

4 New Zealand

Michael Cheika Rugby
Will Jordan (R) of the All Blacks Photo: EPA/DARREN ENGLAND

The All Blacks had their moments in 2022, but the aura surrounding the team has faded substantially in the Ian Foster era.

His tenure is undermined by the fact that it is obvious that most fans of the team would like Scott Robertson in the job and many pundits agree he seems the best fit as well.

However, Foster remains in the job heading into 2023 and it seems that it would take a catastrophe to deny him a tilt at the World Cup.

3 France

Springboks wing Cheslin Kolbe and France captain Antoine Dupont Sylvain Thomas/AFP
Springboks wing Cheslin Kolbe is taken out in the air by France scrumhalf Antoine Dupont. Image: Sylvain Thomas/AFP

France positioned themselves as the early favourites to be the team of the year.

However, it appeared that the mantle of favourites didn’t sit that well with the team and their performances dropped off towards the tail-end of the season.

France should have lost at home to the Springboks and injuries to key players have also hampered their development as a squad.

2 South Africa

Canan Moodie scores for the Boks. Photo: Getty Images
Canan Moodie scores for the Springboks. Photo: Getty Images

We might view the world through green and gold glasses, but the Springboks are much better than their eight wins from 13 Tests this season bears out.

The 2022 season was one of learning by hard knocks.

One of those tough lessons is that goal-kicking is very important and shouldn’t be an afterthought while the search for a backup No 10 behind Handre Pollard is the Springboks most urgent mission.

1 Ireland

Ireland Springboks
The Springboks lost a hard-fought match against Ireland in Dublin. Photo: Twitter @IrishRugby

Ireland are already feeling the benefits of having the top South African franchises in the URC and simply had the best 2022.

Any team that wins a Test series in New Zealand should come in for gushing praise, but the Irish also backed it up in the Autumn Nations Series where they went unbeaten.

Their only real blip was a Six Nations loss in Paris but Ireland were the Test team of 2022.

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