Following their stunning victory over Australia, Scotland have moved up to their highest ever World Rugby Ranking.
It was only a few months ago that Scotland broke all previous records and moved up to 5th, but now they’ve gone one better an taken 4th place following a strong Six Nations and back to back victories over Italy and then Australia on their Summer tour.
Watch highlights of Scotland’s v Australia
Going into Saturday’s game the men in blue were in 6th, having slid down a place after losses to France and England, but they now leapfrog both South Africa and Australia to put them amongst the top sides in the world.
Only the All Blacks (1), England (2) and Ireland (3) sit ahead of Gregor Townsend’s men.
The move up will further call into question Warren Gatland’s decision to ignore the talents of so many Scottish players in the Lions squad. But their loss is clearly Scotland’s gain.
We’re still 5th, world rugby announced that they got the calculation wrong
Is it south africa that are ahead of us or still oz?
Think Australia
Yup Austrlia ahead Sa behind us
Nope, SA behind us (6th) and Aus are above us (4th). We’re the sandwich filling.
Diego Correa Bravo
Not if the Lions keep poaching our players.
And breaking them!
I’m confused. It was reported that we were ranked 5th after the 6 Nations and at the time of the RWC draw, one place behind Ireland in 4th.
We dropped back down to 6th because Australia beat Fiji and Ireland won recently, this puts us back above Ireland and only just behind Aus. I can’t be sure but beating Fiji in Fiji might put us into 4th
Not correct, Ireland are now 3rd. I think Scotland will be 5th still.
Ross I think our hope of going to fourth is if Italy beat Aus.dubtfull because Italy are rank rotten.
At least the presd notice well done scotland
I would love to see Scotland get to second in the world rankings but I am just happy with 4th Scotland still can get better
2nd? Lol why not number 1 ??
And then add the U20s with their highest finish, beating the Wallabies as well
They won brilliant! Some weekend for Scottish Rugby
https://youtu.be/-AHUr1OUFm4
Great togetherness at the end to hold up the man and win the scrum.
Hopefully they can be kept together as a group for the future
As an Australian I wish to congratulate the Scotland U20 team for the win, well done. onwards and upwards.
Aye!
Get in there lads
Imogen O’Hanlon
Bringing the pride back into Scottish Rugby canny wait for February at Murryfield
I really hope so.
Clean sweep in autumn tests wouldnt do our rankings any harm.
Finn made Dan Carter look pedestrian last time he played against him.
E MacRae
Deserved been so close over the year s
I walked into a pub in Cape Town to watch Springboks v France wearing my Scotland top and the amount of guys that shook my hand or clapped me on the back was amazing….. well done Scotland ya beauties!
Yeh were the best
Finn Russell the best all the scots teams were playing very well
Bravo Scotland!
well done big Vern laid fantastic foundation gave us a belief thats carried over forever in his debt
David Gunn – Great to see, but Australia really are rubbish at the moment tho! X
Great achievement
Nope, we’re back to 5th after dropping to 6th last week.
Amazing the time is now for you well done lads xx
I’m happy. Well done the team, I say.
That is great, but they have to earn it so don’t let it go to your heads Lads.
Scotland achlease heal has always been self belief perhaps we now have some self belief keep it real keep it simple keep believing and remember to play to the whistle
Outstanding go boys go
Great stuff Toony and the boys. Massive self belief. Keep it coming. Scotty NZ
All the kiwis here are happy about the result, but I expected that.
We could go higher, but the game in Scotland needs more players, also another pro team would add to the player base.
Well deserved!
You don’t need ‘big numbers’…just enough to field a winning team…
To be brutally honest it looks like Gatland’s awful selections have worked very well for Scotland. The team has improved on this tour and with Gregor’s selections giving many people a chance we are starting to show some real depth.
For me Gatland has killed the Lions and his last call ups just rammed that home. 4 more Welshmen is patently ridiculous and that’s not just from a one eyed Scotsman. The players that had to be there by now bearing in mind the injuries have to have included Gray, Fraser Brown, WP, Dunbar but also Ringrose and the two players I think no one could argue with Launchbury and our own Hamish Watson.
The Lions are going to get destroyed and I am not going to shed any tears about it and it’s down to Gatland probably the worstLions coach ever.
One final comment is that Gregor is going to be a great coach but we owe so much to Stern Vern!
By “not going to shed any tears” you evidently don’t care for The Lions, so those of us that do don’t really care for your comments. All of your wishlist of players have equally impressive competitors – Launchbury would be in front of Gray, but Lions don’t need any more 2nd rows! And it took Lions 8 days to recover from the long haul flight so it would be foolhardy to fly in Launchbury now, though I agree he should have been in the original squad. Scots should take some of the blame for the shambles of a schedule which was agreed on McGeechan and Irvine’s watch. If the only way that Gatland can win this series is to redefine the role of The Lions squad it is their fault more than his. Also worth noting that The Lions asked the All Blacks to reschedule but they refused, so perhaps we should go to Argentina in 12 years time – not that you’d care!
The reason a series win in New Zealand is particularly difficult is not because of Geech or Andy Irvine, it is because of the Kiwis strength & depth. There are no easy wins against the NZ provincial sides or the unofficial fourth test team the Maoris. The Lions need to be tested before the Test Matches and they have been. To try and address The reasons for the lack of Scots in the squad goes, it just beggars belief that we didn’t have more than two, Wales out of all of the four teams should have had the least amount of players but WG has the last say and the buck stops with him. Scotland didn’t warrant even one forward even after neither Ireland nor Wales could cope with our back row. It’s a hard one to work that out no matter which of the home nations you support, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating so let’s wait and see how the Lions perform over the three test in particular!!! 🙂
Going up yah hoo
That’s unbelievable, well done! Never thought I’d see Scotland higher than 5
Love you Scotland
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS towards TOKYO, 2019.
We can thank the Lions selection committee for that.
Yeah hail hail
Fantastic game! Still celebrating!
Gordon Mennie
Le nom de l’entraîneur déjà..!
So proud of you boys
They should be on good form for the next Six-Nations then. Well done lads !