Sweden began their 2024-25 Rugby Europe Men's Trophy campaign with a 22-16 win over Czechia in Trelleborg on Saturday, but the margin of victory was not quite enough for them to reach new heights in the World Rugby Men's Rankings.
The 0.62 points gained for Saturday's win leaves last year's Trophy runners-up just one-hundredth of a point behind Germany, as they needed to win by more than 15 points to improve on their current record position of 32nd. Czechia are also as they were, unchanged in 34th.
The weekend's other Trophy match did, however, lead to some movement, with Lithuania doing enough to climb one place to 49th on the back of a 47-20 home win over last year's promoted side, Luxembourg.
Lithuania had lost their four previous home tests but were too good for the Trophy newcomers, outscoring them five tries to two in a victory which sends them above Cook Islands. Luxembourg's defeat has cost them a couple of places and they are now in 55th.
Elsewhere, the All Blacks beat Japan 64-19 in Yokohama City but were not able to improve their rating due to the 16.39 points differential between the teams.
New Zealand remain in third place and head to Europe with an unchanged rating of 88.70 points, while Japan stay put in 14th.
And it was a same story for Latvia, who justified their significantly superior rating with a 36-19 win away to Norway in the 2024-25 Rugby Europe Men's Conference. Latvia remain in 58th place, while Norway continue to languish in 106th, having seen their losing run extended to 16 matches.
Hungary beat Slovakia 51-16 in the other Conference match but that game did not count towards the rankings as Slovakia are not full members of World Rugby.
