World Rugby has published the permutations for the women’s rankings this week in its preview. World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for the latest matches in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations 2025, Rugby Europe Women’s Championship 2025 and Rugby Africa Women’s Cup Division 1 2025 this weekend.

Permutation highlights

The Ivory Coast can end the week inside the top 50 if they win by more than 15 points and Zimbabwe lose to Uganda.

England are again unable to improve their rating with victory over Ireland given the 18.58 points difference between the teams before home weighting is factored in.

However, the remaining sides in the 2025 Guinness Women’s Six Nations can all improve their rating to some degree.

Scotland have the most to gain with a maximum of three rating points available if they can beat England by more than 15 points in Leicester, slightly more than on offer for Italy to upset France.

A simple win will not be enough for Scotland to improve on seventh place unless Ireland lose by more than 15 points against Wales in Newport.

However, a win by more than 15 points would lift Scotland above Australia into sixth with fifth – equalling their highest-ever position – possible if Ireland suffer a heavy loss in Wales.

Defending champions England cannot be toppled from top spot as a heavy defeat would still leave them 5.25 points clear of second-placed Canada.

France cannot improve on fourth place with a win in Italy, but they could reduce the gap to New Zealand above them by up to 0.32 rating points in victory.

A draw could be enough for the Azzurre to climb the rankings for a second week in a row, providing that Scotland are beaten by England.

The Azzurre would still climb above Scotland if they win and the side they beat in round three hold England to a draw. Italy could also overhaul Ireland if they beat France by more than 15 and the Irish lose to Wales by the same margin.

Ireland can only gain just under a rating point for beating Wales so would only make small inroads into the deficit to France in fourth unless Les Bleues are beaten in Parma.

Wales, though, can climb above USA into ninth place if they win by more than 15 points with Ireland slipping below Australia with any margin of defeat.

Spain will swap places with South Africa and become the higher ranked of the two nations if they win their one-off test.

A win by more than 15 points will also lift Spain above Japan into 11th place – a position they last occupied in March 2023.

The Springbok Women will also climb above Japan if they avoid defeat in Elche, equalling their highest position of 11th which they last occupied for a week in September 2024.

Neither side can fall below 13th position even with a heavy loss.

Sweden cannot improve on 20th place even if they beat the Netherlands by more than 15 points in the final match of the Rugby Europe Women’s Championship 2025, but defeat will see the Dutch drop below Fiji into 16th.

The Netherlands will only gain a maximum of 0.40 points in victory, not quite enough to catch Samoa above them.

Uganda know that victory over Zimbabwe will see them crowned Rugby Africa Women’s Cup Division 1 2025 champions with an unbeaten record, but it won’t be enough to improve on 34th place.

A second defeat of the week will leave Zimbabwe in 50th – or 51st if the Ivory Coast upset the higher-ranked Tunisia in the opening game of day three.

However, victory could lift them four or five places depending on the winning margin.

Defeat for Uganda could see them drop five places to 39th – the position they occupied before this tournament – with Tunisia among the sides to climb above the Lady Cranes if they can finish the tournament with victory over the Ivory Coast.

Match officials

Sara Cox (England) will referee Italy v France for the sixth time but the first since September 2022. This will be her 43rd test, drawing her level once more with Aimee Barrett-Theron as the most-capped female official in test history.
Clara Munarini (Italy) takes charge of England v Scotland for third time with the Scots yet to score a point in the two previous games in 2020 and 2024.
Lauren Jenner (New Zealand) referees Wales for the first time when they host Ireland in Newport. Ireland have lost their last two matches with the Italy-based official.
Adèle Robert (Belgium) will take charge of the Rugby Europe Women’s Championship encounter between Sweden and the Netherlands, having overseen their 2023 meeting when the Dutch won 38-12.
Holly Wood (England) will referee the one-off test between Spain and South Africa for the first time. Both teams have lost their only previous test with Wood in the middle

WORLD RUGBY WOMEN’S RANKINGS

Rank	Teams	Points
1	England	97.56
2	Canada	89.31
3	New Zealand	88.64
4	France	85.7
5	Ireland	78.98
6	Australia	78.1
7	Scotland	75.41
8	Italy (9)	74.89
9	USA (8)	74.2
10	Wales	72.31
11	Japan	66.41
12	South Africa	66.18
13	Spain	65.59
14	Samoa	60.56
15	Netherlands	60.02
16	Fiji	59.14
17	Hong Kong China	56.2
18	Kazakhstan	55.23
19	Russia	55.1
20	Sweden	49.72
21	Germany	49.03
22	Kenya	48.84
23	Portugal (25)	48.12
24	Belgium (23)	47.28
25	Madagascar (24)	45.29
26	Tonga	43.53
27	China	43.34
28	Trinidad & Tobago	43.27
29	Colombia	42.91
30	Mexico	42.67
31	Croatia (32)	41.96
32	Finland (33)	41.78
33	Brazil (34)	41.73
34	Uganda (39)	40.92
35	Andorra	40.89
36	Cameroon	40.7
37	Tunisia (31)	40.09
38	Romania (37)	39.86
39	Jamaica (38)	39.67
40	Czechia	38.56
41	Latvia	38.02
42	Norway	37.81
43	Bulgaria	36.23
44	Papua New Guinea	35.41
45	Denmark	34.68
46	Singapore	34.06
47	Zambia	33.95
48	Guyana	33.63
49	Zimbabwe (53)	33.27
50	Senegal (49)	33.16
51	Bosnia & Herzegovina	32
52	India	31.6
53	Cote D’Ivoire (50)	30.69
54	Thailand	30.35
55	Switzerland	29.46
56	Uzbekistan	29.4
57	Burkina Faso	29.32
58	Cayman Islands	28.95
59	Botswana	27.3
60	Philippines	27.16
61	Luxembourg	26.83
62	Namibia	26.14
63	Serbia	25.79
64	Barbados	24.06
65	St Vincent and the Grenadines	22.71
66	Bahamas	21.67

As at 17 April 2025