Record win sees Samoa climb World Rugby Women's Rankings

With results in WXV 1 and WXV 2 going according to the rankings and the formbook, there were no positional changes to the top 10 of the World Rugby Women's Rankings this weekend.

However, on a weekend of very little movement in the rankings, Samoa's record 45-17 win over Fiji in WXV 3 did have a big impact.

Samoa easily beat their previous best margin of victory of 12 points in 18 years of playing test rugby against Fiji, and they are now the higher-ranked of the two teams following a two-place gain.

The commanding win at The Sevens Stadium in the United Arab Emirates has sent them up to 15th, one place above Fiji, who started the weekend three places and 2.92 points better off.

Also on the slide are WXV newcomers, the Netherlands, whose 20-0 defeat to European rivals Spain cost them one place. The Dutch are now 17th heading into the final weekend of their debut WXV campaign.

Japan and South Africa trading places was the only other positional change brought about by results from WXV. Both teams were beaten in WXV 2, by Scotland and Australia, respectively, but the Sakura 15s' rating of 66.89 points was untouched while Springbok Women had 0.34 points shaved off theirs, to leave them slightly behind the Asia champions on 66.73 points.

England, meanwhile, extended their advantage over Canada at the top of the rankings by 0.06 to 7.06 points after they beat New Zealand 49-31 in Langley on Sunday.

Australia, Italy and Spain did improve their rating in victory but the points gained were not enough for them to improve on seventh, ninth and 13th place.

In the Rugby Europe Women's Conference Latvia won their second test against Norway 50-0 to climb to a new all-time high of 40th.