With effect from 1 July, 2026 the ‘home weighting’ aspect of the World Rugby Rankings will be removed to reflect an evolving competition landscape in the international game.
When the rankings were introduced in October 2003 (men’s) and February 2016 (women’s), the calculations included a ‘home weighting’ to recognise home advantage in a traditional home and away match hosting model.
This weighting saw the home team receiving an additional three rating points for calculation purposes, effectively cancelling out the advantage of playing at home and meaning winning at home often has a smaller impact on the rankings than winning away.
This also applied to host unions for major competitions, including men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups, Pacific Nations Cup, WXV Global Series and regional competitions.
However, the international competition landscape has changed significantly in recent years and many tournaments are now played in centralised or out of country locations for strategic, commercial or financial reasons, meaning the home weighting often disadvantages the host team from a rankings perspective.
For example, Fiji will play three ‘home’ Nations Championship matches in the UK and Japan their match with Ireland in Australia in July, while the World Rugby Nations Cup teams will play in cluster locations and the WXV Global Series Challenger will be played in a central location in Hong Kong.
At present some 20 matches across internationals competitions are scheduled to take place in neutral locations before the end of 2026, including the final test between South Africa and New Zealand in their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series in Baltimore, USA, in September.
Regional tournaments in 2026 also took place under various models, including home or away and a final days (Europe), home or away (Asia and North America) and one location (Africa, Asia and Oceania women’s competitions).
