Confirmed: Latest rankings as Rugby World Cup heads for playoffs

Although Portugal were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup this past weekend, there is no doubt that they have emerged as the fairytale darlings of the tournament after producing a series of impressive performances that culminated with a historic win over Fiji.

As it is, Portugal have climbed three places to a new high of 13th in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings following their stunning 24-23 win over Fiji in the final match of the pool phase of Rugby World Cup 2023.

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The crowd at Stadium de Toulouse were treated to a wonderful, helter-skelter match that went one way and then the other before being eventually being won in the 78th minute when Rodrigo Marta raced over down the right-hand touchline and Samuel Marques kicked the all-important conversion.

With four points awarded to them for beating a side ranked eight places higher than them before kick-off, Portugal’s new rating of 72.78 points takes them above Georgia, Samoa and Tonga, despite the latter having beaten Romania in the penultimate match of the pool phase.

Meanwhile, the Springboks will travel to Paris on Monday to prepare for the blockbuster knockout game, which kicks off at 21h00 on Sunday and will be broadcast live on SuperSport and SABC.

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Ahead of this encounter, the World Rugby rankings certainly make for interesting reading, with just 0.89 points separating second-place France and the Springboks, according to the live rankings table. It’s a reminder of just how little separates these top teams who last played each other on 22 November, with France edging that match 30-26.

For Fiji, the main goal was qualification for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 2007 and the losing bonus point they picked up in Toulouse was enough for them to go through ahead of Australia on the head-to-head ruling.

However, the manner of the performance was not anywhere near where Fiji would have wanted it to be and they will now go into their last eight tie with England ranked in 10th place, a fall of two places.

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Argentina move up one place to eighth as a result of their 39-27 win over Japan in the first of three entertaining matches on Sunday, while Australia, who exit at the pool stage for the first time, go home ranked one place better off in ninth following the Fiji-Portugal result.

The weekend’s other RWC 2023 matches had no impact on the rankings.

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