World Rugby Men's Rankings permutations

World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for this weekend's final round of pool matches in the Rugby Europe Men's Championship 2025.

Permutation highlights:

• Georgia moved to a record-equalling 11th place last weekend but it isn’t possible for them to break into the top 10 with victory over Spain as Italy, the team immediately above them, are too far ahead to be caught.
• However, the Lelos can increase their advantage over Wales, who they’ve displaced, to 0.94 points with a victory by more than 15 points.
• Spain can only slip from 18th place in defeat if they are beaten by more than 15 points and Romania overcome Portugal by a similarly big margin.
• If Spain are able to end Georgia’s 35-match unbeaten run in the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship then they will climb above Uruguay and into 17th, while they could climb another place if a win is accompanied by a loss for Portugal in Romania.
• Defeat will prove costly for Georgia with the Lelos falling three places to 14th with Wales, Japan and Samoa the beneficiaries.
• Romania must win their Pool B decider by more than 15 points to leapfrog Tonga into 19th place. If this scenario plays out, Tonga will equal their record low of 20th place.
• Portugal can fall a couple of places this weekend if they lose and Spain prosper, while a big win for Os Lobos will see them edge ahead of USA into 15th place.
• The Netherlands cannot improve on 24th place but will move to within 0.01 of a point of Canada above if they become the third team to beat Switzerland by an emphatic scoreline in this Rugby Europe Men’s Championship.
• A defeat for Switzerland will see them concede 28th place to Belgium, as long as the Black Devils avoid defeat against Germany.
• However, Switzerland will climb three places to a record high of 25th with an upset victory over the Netherlands to become the higher ranked of the two nations.
• They can go as high as 24th if margin of victory is more than 15 points.
• The worse-case scenario for the Netherlands is a five-place fall to 29th.
• Belgium will be ranked above their lowland neighbours if they win and the Dutch lose, providing that one of the games is won by more than 15 points.
• Victory over Germany will result in a two-place gain for Belgium even if the Netherlands beat Switzerland.
• Germany will fall between one and three places in defeat, depending on the margin.
• They need to win by more than 15 points to improve on their current position of 31st, a win of that magnitude would see them overtake Belgium in the rankings and climb to 29th – their highest position since February 2020.