Cayman Islands are the biggest climbers of the latest IRB World Rankings with a five-place elevation to 58th after beating the Bahamas 35-7 in a warm-up to the NACRA (North American Caribbean Rugby Association) Championships.
The win on the road in Freeport has lifted the Cayman Island to within one place of their highest ever position since the rankings were introduced in October 2003, while also condemning the Bahamas to a three-place fall to 92nd.
In South America, the CONSUR Championship continued with Uruguay making it two wins from two with a 34-10 win over Brazil in Bento Gonçalves and Chile bouncing back to edge Paraguay 22-18 in Concepción on Saturday.
The win does not improve Uruguay’s ranking of 20th, but does edge them slightly closer to Russia above. Brazil, who upset Chile in the opening round, do fall one place to 34th as a result of the home defeat, swapping places with Kenya.
Chile do improve their rating slightly by beating Paraguay, but the two sides remain 27th and 38th respectively with one round of the championship remaining next weekend, when Uruguay will tackle Chile and Paraguay face Brazil.
In Asia, the Rugby World Cup 2015 qualifying process continued with round two of the Asian 5 Nations yielding victories for Japan and Hong Kong. Japan ran out 99-10 winners over the Philippines, but the result had no impact on the rankings due to 43 places between them.
Hong Kong top the standings following a 41-10 victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo, a result which lifts them one place to 25th – at the expense of Germany – to equal their highest ever position in the rankings. The defeat sees Sri Lanka slip two to 41st.
The two European Nations Cup matches over the weekend provided the two biggest fallers in the rankings with Denmark and Slovenia sliding six and five places after defeats by Latvia and Austria respectively.
Denmark drop to 73rd after a 16-9 loss to Latvia in Division 2B, a result which lifts their visitors to Odense one place to 63rd. Austria triumphed 20-8 in Division 2C to climb four places to 87th and become the higher ranked of the two sides with Slovenia falling to 85th.
