World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for this weekend's matches in the Rugby Africa Women's Cup 2024 and World Rugby Pacific Four Series 2024.
Permutation highlights
New Zealand cannot improve their rating with victory over USA in their first Test of the year due to the 17.99 points and eight places between the teams before home weighting is factored in.
If beaten, the Black Ferns are guaranteed to keep hold of second place as even a loss by more than 15 points would still leave them 0.29 points better off than France in third.
USA currently sit at their lowest-ever position of 10th but will jump three places to seventh – above Ireland, Italy and Wales – if they beat New Zealand for the first time since Women’s Rugby World Cup 1991.
Canada must beat Australia by more than 15 points in the other World Rugby Pacific Four Series match this weekend to climb above France into third place.
If that happens and USA stun the Black Ferns by the same margin then Canada would close to just 0.04 rating points of the world champions in second.
Australia are safe in fifth place regardless of the outcome of either game.
A win by more than 15 points for the Wallaroos, though, will see the deficit between themselves and Canada above cut to 1.16 rating points from the current 4.66 points.
For the third match in the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup 2024, South Africa cannot improve their rating or their current position of 12th by beating a Madagascar side 19.14 points and 14 places worse off than them.
However, the Springbok Women will lose a place and fall below Spain if they fail to beat Madagascar for the first time.
A draw would be enough to lift Madagascar above Trinidad and Tobago into 25th but a win by more than 15 points would see the Lady Makis climb three places to 23rd regardless of the outcome of the other match.
A smaller margin of victory would be sufficient for a three-place gain so long as Kenya don’t beat Cameroon by more than 15 points in the day’s earlier game in Antananarivo.
Kenya cannot improve on 23rd place this weekend as they can only close to within 1.24 points of China above them.
Cameroon will drop two places to 33rd in defeat, regardless of the margin.
However, a Cameroon win would result in them moving up by one or two places depending on the margin of victory.
Kenya will fall one place if held to a draw by Cameroon, while defeat could see them drop as many as three places.
Match officials
Julianne Zussman (Canada) takes charge of New Zealand v USA in the World Rugby Pacific Four Series for the third time, having been in the middle for the Black Ferns' wins in 2022 and 2023.
Natarsha Ganley (New Zealand) makes her Pacific Four Series debut with the weekend's other match between Australia and Canada in Sydney. It will be the first time she referees both teams.
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