Uganda improves in latest World Rugby rankings

The Uganda Men’s National Rugby team, the Rugby Cranes, have improved slightly in the latest World Rugby rankings released on May 20, 2019 by the World Rugby Council.

The Rugby Cranes improved by one slot to the 41st position with a total of 48.34 points and placed 6th in Africa.

The climb was aided by a 52-0 hammering of Ghana in the Barthes Rugby Cup that took place in Kampala. Zambia won the tournament defeating Uganda by 14-12 in the final.

South Africa, ranked at 5th, Namibia (23), Kenya (32), Zimbabwe (36) and Tunisia (40) are the top five countries on the continent.

The top ten ranked teams worldwide also remained unchanged – New Zealand, Wales, Ireland, England, South Africa, Australia, Scotland, France, Fiji and Argentina.

United Arab Emirates, up by six places to position 64 were the biggest movers while Guam were the worst movers, dropping by 5 slots to position 74.

The rankings are calculated using a ‘Points Exchange’ system, in which sides take points off each other based on the match result. Whatever one side gains, the other loses.

The exchanges are based on the match result, the relative strength of each team, and the margin of victory, and there is an allowance for home advantage.

Points exchanges are doubled during the World Cup Finals to recognize the unique importance of this event, but all other full international matches are treated the same, to be as fair as possible to countries playing a different mix of friendly and competitive matches across the world.

Any match that is not a full international between two member countries does not count at all. All member countries have a rating, typically between 0 and 100. The top side in the world will normally have a rating above 90.