
World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for this week's matches in the World Rugby Pacific Four Series 2024, Asia Rugby Women's Championship 2024 and Oceania Rugby Women's Championship 2024.
Permutation highlights
New Zealand fell to their lowest position since the World Rugby Women’s Rankings began in February 2016 when they dropped to third after being beaten by Canada last weekend.
The Black Ferns are resigned to staying there for a while yet as they cannot improve their rating by beating Australia in the final match of the World Rugby Pacific Four Series 2024 due to the 10.60-point gap between the sides before home weighting is factored in.
New Zealand will, however, drop a place to a new all-time low of fourth if they suffer a first-ever defeat at the hands of Australia.
Australia will remain in fifth if they – like Canada – create history, but the difference between the two sides would be cut to just 4.60 points if the Wallaroos beat the Black Ferns for the first time in 26 attempts.
Elsewhere defending champions Samoa cannot improve their rating with victory over Papua New Guinea in their Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship 2024 opener due to the 23.76 rating points between the teams.
The same is true for Fiji in the tournament’s other match with Tonga as a result of the 15.52 rating points between the two nations.
However, Fiji will assume Samoa’s mantle of being the Pacific Islands’ highest-ranked team if they win in Brisbane and Manusina fail to beat Tonga in the opening day’s second match.
A defeat for Samoa would cost them three places, while at the same time Papua New Guinea could climb by as many as seven and break back into the world’s top 50.
Tonga would lift them above Colombia and Belgium into 25th place – their highest-ever position – if they can upset Fiji.
They will climb an additional place, at Madagascar’s expense, if the margin is more than 15 points.
Fiji could drop as low as 19th in defeat with Hong Kong China one of the beneficiaries despite losing 29-12 to Japan in the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship 2024 opener on Wednesday.
The Japan v Kazakhstan match in the Asia Rugby Women's Championship will not be included in the next rankings update on Monday but will count towards the update on 3 June.
Match officials
Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa) once again becomes the most-capped female referee in her own right with New Zealand v Australia her 39th Test to move her one clear of England's Sara Cox. This is the fourth time she will referee the trans-Tasman encounter with the Black Ferns victorious on all three previous occasions.
Jess Ling (Australia) takes charge of the Oceania Rugby Women's Championship 2024 opener between Fiji and Tonga on Friday. It will be her second Test as referee and first since her she oversaw Fiji's 28-14 loss to Japan in May 2022.
Lavenia Racaca (Fiji) will referee Samoa v Papua New Guinea for the second time, having overseen Manusina's 83-0 victory in last year's Oceania Rugby Women's Championship. She has refereed both teams twice, with Samoa yet to lose and Papua New Guinea yet to taste victory.
Sunny Lee (Hong Kong China) will referee the second match of the Asia Rugby Women's Championship 2024 between Japan and Kazakhstan on Monday.
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