World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for the third round of the Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup 2024 and fourth round of The Rugby Championship 2024 this weekend.
Permutation highlights
A first defeat of The Rugby Championship 2024 will see South Africa surrender top spot in the rankings to Ireland.
South Africa will fall to third if the margin of defeat is by more than 15 points with their conquerors New Zealand also climbing above the world champions.
However, a fourth win of the tournament could see the Springboks increase their cushion at top over Ireland to 1.56 points.
New Zealand cannot fall from third place even if they suffer back-to-back defeats in South Africa as they would still sit 1.18 points above France in fourth.
Argentina cannot regain the sixth place they lost to Scotland following last weekend’s loss to Australia even if they beat the Wallabies by more than 15 points in Santa Fe.
This margin of victory would leave Los Pumas trailing Scotland by 0.33 rating points and see Australia fall back to ninth behind Italy.
Australia will become the higher-ranked of the two teams in seventh if they beat Argentina.
A win by more than 15 points would leave the Wallabies just 0.04 points behind Scotland in sixth.
Defeat by this margin would see Argentina fall another place with Italy the beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, in the Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup this weekend Fiji are unable to improve on 10th place with victory over Tonga in Nuku’alofa.
It is a similar scenario for Japan, who can only pick up a maximum of 0.17 points for beating USA in Kumagaya this weekend.
USA, however, will climb three places to 16th if they can beat the Brave Blossoms and Tonga lose at home to Fiji. They have not been ranked as high since November 2021.
Japan will drop a place and be replaced in 15th by Portugal if they lose to the Men’s Eagles.
Defeat by more than 15 points would leave Japan sitting a mere 0.21 points above USA.
A win for Tonga by more than 15 points will see the ‘Ikale Tahi climb two places to 14th if combined with a Japanese defeat. Otherwise, they’ll have to settle for a one-place gain.
Such a heavy defeat would also cost Fiji their place in the top 10 with Wales replacing them.
Match officials
Angus Gardner (Australia) will take charge of the Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup encounter between Tonga and Fiji in Nuku'alofa. He last refereed Tonga in their win over Romania at Rugby World Cup 2023, while Fiji have won their only previous match with the Australian in the middle, against Samoa in a RWC 2023 warm-up match.
Hollie Davidson (Scotland) becomes the first female to referee a Pacific Nations Cup match with Japan v USA in Kumagaya. It will be Davidson's sixth Test of the year and fourth men's Test with this year having seen the Scot already become the first female assistant referee in both the Guinness Men's Six Nations and The Rugby Championship.
Matthew Carley (England) will oversee a South Africa v New Zealand encounter for the third time, having taken charge of the Springboks' 31-29 victory in Australia in 2021 and the record 35-7 win at Twickenham last year. He has refereed once at DHL Stadium before with South Africa's defeat of Wales in 2022.
Pierre Brousset (France) will make his Rugby Championship debut with Argentina v Australia in Santa Fe. It will be the first time he referees Los Pumas and the second for the Wallabies in 2024 after overseeing their 25-16 victory over Wales in July.
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