Samoa’s Historic Win Over Fiji Boosts World Rugby Women’s Ranking

By Priscilla Jepchumba

Over the weekend, the Samoa women’s rugby team achieved a significant 45-17 victory over Fiji in WXV 3, resulting in a two-place gain in the rankings.

This triumph marked a historic moment for Manusina, which first secured their first Oceania title in 2023. The Samoan team debuted in 2000 and has participated in three Rugby World Cups, starting with the 2002 tournament in Spain and subsequently in the 2006 and 2014 World Cups.

Their impressive victory at The Sevens Stadium in the United Arab Emirates has propelled them to 15th place, surpassing Fiji, who began the weekend three places higher with 2.92 more points.

The World Rugby Women’s Rankings remained unchanged in the top 10 this weekend, as the results in WXV 1 and WXV 2 followed the expected rankings and formbook.

Japan and South Africa trading places were the only other positional changes brought about by results from WXV. Both teams were beaten in WXV 2 by Scotland and Australia, respectively.

Japan’s Sakura 15s score of 66.89 points remained unchanged, while the Springbok Women saw a decrease of 0.34 points, leaving them slightly behind the Asia champions with 66.73 points.

In the meantime, England increased their lead over Canada at the top of the rankings by 0.06, now standing at 7.06 points after their 49-31 victory over New Zealand in Langley on Sunday.

Newcomers, the Netherlands, meanwhile, dropped to 17th place after suffering a 20-0 defeat against Spain. Japan and South Africa also swapped positions in the rankings.

England further solidified its lead at the top, while Australia, Italy, and Spain saw improvements in their ratings. In the Rugby Europe Women’s Conference, Latvia achieved a new milestone by securing its second victory against Norway with a score of 50-0, propelling it to 40th place in the rankings.

Latvia suffered a 43-7 defeat against Finland during their debut last year, but they have since learned from that experience and delivered a dominant performance against Norway. It was evident that Latvia had a significant advantage in the forward positions during their match against Norway over the weekend.