World Rugby Women's Rankings preview: 22-23 March, 2025

World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for the opening round of the Guinness Women's Six Nations as well as the women's international between Spain and Brazil this weekend.

Permutation highlights:

• Defending champions England cannot improve their rating with victory over Italy as a result of the 22.81 points difference between the teams before home weighting is factored in.
• England currently have an 8.25 rating point cushion over Canada below them, an advantage that could be cut by up to three rating points if they lose to Italy by more than 15 points.
• A first-ever victory over England will not necessarily come with a ranking rise, as it will depend on the margin and also the outcome of Scotland v Wales in Edinburgh a day earlier.
• A simple victory will be enough for Italy to climb one place to seventh if the Scotland v Wales match ends in a draw or the visitors claim victory.
• If Scotland win then Italy must beat England by more than 15 points to gain a place.
• Scotland can improve on seventh place in victory, but only if they beat Wales by more than 15 points and Ireland lose by the same margin at home to France.
• Wales will climb above USA into ninth place with a narrow victory in Scotland, while a win by more than 15 points would see them jump three places to seventh and become the higher ranked of the two Celtic nations.
• France can only gain a maximum of 0.89 rating points by beating Ireland in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations 2025 opening match, not enough to catch New Zealand in third.
• A draw will be enough to lift Ireland above Australia into fifth place, but they can go no higher as even a victory by more than 15 points would still leave them over three points adrift of France above them.
• Ireland have not been ranked as high as fifth since hosting Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017.
• The weekend’s other international features the sides with the biggest gap between them in the rankings – Spain and Brazil.
• Las Leonas go into the match 21 places and 23.69 points above their opponents and as such victory for the home side will have no impact on their rating.
• A win for Brazil, who will be making their Women’s Rugby World Cup debut this year, would send them shooting up the rankings into the top 30 for the first time.
• Currently at their highest-ever position of 34th after beating Portugal last weekend, Brazil will jump eight places to 26th in victory.
• Spain cannot fall from 13th in defeat given their cushion over Samoa below.

Match officials:

• Hollie Davidson (Scotland) will take charge of Ireland v France for the second time, having been in the middle for France’s 53-3 victory in Cork in April 2023. The Scottish official will become the third female to referee 40 tests after Aimee Barrett-Theron and Sara Cox.
• Kat Roche (USA) will referee a test in Scotland for the first time when she oversees the visit of Wales. Scotland won their previous match with Roche in charge, while Wales have a W1, L1 record. 
• Precious Pazani (Zimbabwe) will make her Guinness Women's Six Nations debut in the middle when she takes charge of England v Italy in York, becoming the first African from outside South Africa to referee in the competition. It will be the time she referees England in a test. 
• Ella Goldsmith (Australia) referees Brazil for the first time when they take on Spain, a side she refereed against Fiji at WXV 3 2023.