The Philippines and Guyana have reached new highs in the latest IRB World Rankings after contrasting victories over Sri Lanka and Barbados respectively in regional competitions on Saturday.

In the Asian 5 Nations, the Philippines edged Sri Lanka 26-25 in Colombo to climb four places to a new high of 52nd and condemn their hosts to a six-place drop to 48th, the biggest fall of the last seven days.

The second round of the NACRA Championship, meanwhile, saw Guyana beat Barbados 48-19 on the road to rise five places to 56th, equalling their highest ever position since the rankings were introduced in October 2003. Barbados have fallen four places to 78th after the defeat. 

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Mexico have also equalled their best ranking of 65th, having climbed one place on the back of a 33-18 win over the Bahamas in the NACRA Championship. Bahamas fall one place to 93rd, matching the lowest position they have sat in the rankings. 

The two other NACRA Championship matches did not impact the rankings with one team involved either not a member of the IRB or only an Associate Member and therefore not ranked. Jamaica edged Turks & Caicos 10-6, while St Vincent & The Grenadines beat the British Virgin Islands 22-24. 

The same was true of the one European Nations Cup 2014 match over the weekend, which saw Cyprus beat Hungary 46-13 in Division 2C as the champions as not an IRB Member Union. 

In the CONSUR Cup, Argentina ran out 65-9 winners over Uruguay but this match had no bearing on the IRB World Rankings as a result of the 11 places and 14.58 rating points separating the South American sides.

This was also the case for the Asian 5 Nations match in Incheon where Japan beat Korea 62-5 to set up the decider with Hong Kong this Sunday to determine who qualifies for Rugby World Cup 2015 as Asia 1 and which side enters the Repechage.

Uzbekistan have entered the IRB World Rankings with a rating of 30.00 after their application to become an IRB Full Member Union was approved by Council last week. Uzbekistan join American Samoa, Indonesia and UAE in joint 96th position, meaning that Mauritius, Greece and Finland all fall one place.

There are now 102 nations in the IRB World Rankings.