Trinidad & Tobago are the biggest climbers in the latest IRB World Rankings, rising three places to their highest ever position of 42nd on the back of a 17-10 victory over Barbados in the NACRA Championship.
The away victory enables Trinidad & Tobago to climb above the Netherlands, Ivory Coast and Sri Lanka, while the defeat in the south zone round two match sees Barbados fall two places to 74th with Zambia and Hungary the beneficiaries.
Two other sides suffered a one-place drop in Uruguay and Moldova, the South Americans as a result of a 21-18 loss to Chile in their regional championship and Moldova as a result of Brazil’s 51-14 defeat of Paraguay in the same competition.
Uruguay’s defeat, which saw Chile win the first phase of the South American Championship, means they drop to 22nd, swapping place with Rugby World Cup 2011 bound Namibia.
Unfortunately for Chile, despite their win over their traditional rivals on Argentine soil, they do not improve their standing of 24th. Their rating has improved by nearly two points, which brings them to within three tenths of Spain above and of point of Uruguay.
Brazil, meanwhile, bounced back from losses to Chile and Uruguay to beat Paraguay and avoid a play-off against the South American B Championship winner for a place among the elite nations in the 2012 competition.
Paraguay stay put
The win lifts Brazil above Moldova into 28th and to within touching distance of Hong Kong above them, a side who overwhelmed the United Arab Emirates 62-3 to finish second in the HSBC Asian 5 Nations for the first time in their history.
This result had no impact on the IRB World Rankings as the UAE are not a Full Member Union of the International Rugby Board and therefore not ranked, but over the course of the Top 5 competition Hong Kong have climbed nine places in total.
Japan’s emphatic 90-13 defeat of Sri Lanka was the perfect way to celebrate a fourth successive title, but does not their position of 13th as a result of the 31 places and 24.21 rating points separating the sides before kick-off.
Paraguay’s rating did fall as a result of the loss to Brazil, their third at the South American Championship, but they had enough of a cushion over Uganda to avoid relinquishing their 40th spot in the rankings. The two sides, though, are now separated by only seven tenths.
