Latest world rankings revealed

England will go into the 2017 World Cup in their usual third position in the world rankings.

Unsurprisingly, Australia remain the number one nation after their convincing victory over second placed New Zealand in the recent Anzac Test.

Scotland have retained their top four place with Tonga moving up one place after they defeated Fiji in last week’s Pacific Test.

There are two new names in the rankings with Thailand and Uruguay underlining the growth of the international game as more nations begin to take part in the sport.

Rankings:

1 Australia

2 New Zealand

3 England

4 Scotland

5 Samoa

6 France

7 Ireland

8 Fiji

9 Wales

10 USA

11 Tonga

12 Serbia

13 Canada

14 Italy

15 PNG

16 Russia

17 Jamaica

18 Belgium

19 Malta

20 Spain

21 Lebanon

22 Ukraine

23 Germany

24 Cook Islands

25 Czech Republic

26 Norway

27 Denmark

28 Greece

29 Sweden

30 Netherlands

31 Niue

32 South Africa

33 Hungary

34 Philippines

35 Thailand

36 Chile

37 Vanuatu

38 El Salvador

39 Latvia

40 Solomon Islands

41 Uruguay

42 Morocco

As of May 14th 2017