Zurich World Rankings ahead of June Tests

Who is placed where?

The month of June provides a exciting taster for the upcoming Rugby World Cup as the best nations in world rugby take on each other in the southern hemipshere winter in a compact four week window.

It includes the eagerly anticpated clash between the top two ranked nations, England and New Zealand, in Wellington on June 14 as well as Australia entertaining Ireland and South African looking for revenge against Scotland.

All of which mean there is going to plenty of change in the world order come the next update of the Zurich World Rankings on July 1.

Meanwhile, in the only action for the Top 20 nations in the month of May, the USA made a big gain after their comfortable home win over Japan and they rise above Romania into 16th place.

Elsewhere, the only notable shift was Zimbabwe falling six places to 39th in the world following their two away defeats to lowly ranked neighbour Zambia and their eastern rivals Kenya.

Zurich World Rankings (as of June 1, 2003):

1 England 1239
2 New Zealand 1206
3 Australia 1146
4 France 1139
5 South Africa 1045
6 Ireland 893
7 Scotland 783
8 Argentina 762
9 Wales 702
10 Samoa 680
11 Canada 603
12 Italy 593
13 Fiji 567
14 Tonga 523
(-) 15 Japan 446 (-25)
(+1) 16 United States 391 (+19)
(-1) 17 Romania 383
18 Georgia 359
19 Uruguay 307
20 Namibia 294

21 Portugal 292
22 Russia 282 (+13)
23 Tunisia 254
24= Chile 251
24= Morocco 251
26 Korea 241
27 Cote d'Ivoire 240
28 Spain 234
29 Czech Republic 232
30 Cook Islands 230
(+1) 31 Germany 225
(+2) 32 Ukraine 224 (+4)
(-) 33 Poland 219 (-2)
(+1) 34 Netherlands 218 (+2)
(+1) 35 Denmark 211
(+1) 36 Croatia 210
(+1) 37 Slovenia 207 (-)
(+1) 38 Switzerland 204 (+1)
(-6) 39 Zimbabwe 201 (-28)
(+1) 40 Brazil 198

(+1) 41 Latvia 197
(-2) 42 Sweden 196
43 Belgium 193
44 Papua New Guinea 193
45 Chinese Taipei 190
46 Hong Kong 188
47 Paraguay 171
48 Madagascar 169
49 Arabian Gulf 163
(+1) 50 Kenya 155 (+6)
(-1) 51 Yugoslavia 150 (-5)
(+1) 52 Trinidad and Tobago 147
(-2) 53 Hungary 140 (-9)
(-) 54 Austria 136 (-15)
55 Bermuda 132
56= Malaysia 131
56= Andorra 131
58 Thailand 125
(+1) 59 Moldova 121 (+19)
(-1) 60 China 119

(-) 61 Lithuania 109 (+5)
(-1) 62 Singapore 104
63 Uganda 101
(+4) 64 Zambia 96 (+13)
(-1) 65 Kazakhstan 93
(-1) 66 Botswana 92
(-1) 67 Sri Lanka 91
(-1) 68 Venezuela 87
69= Cameroon 79
69= Cayman Islands 79
71 Israel 78
72 Tahiti 72
73 Malta 66
74 Bosnia 62
75 Luxembourg 57 (+9)
76= Bulgaria 55
76= Niue Island 55
78 Jamaica 48
79= Solomon Islands 37
79= Peru 37
81 Monaco 36
82 Swaziland 34
83 Barbados 29
84= Mexico 26
84= Norway 26
86= Bahamas 24
86= Guyana 24
88 Vanuatu 23
89 Colombia 20