World Rugby Women's Rankings preview: 13-14 April, 2024

World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for the Guinness Women's Six Nations and Rugby Europe Women's Championship matches this weekend.

Permutation highlights:

• England cannot improve their rating this weekend as they won’t be awarded any points in victory against Scotland due to the 20.38-point differential between the teams.
• The Red Roses currently have a 5.62-rating point cushion over New Zealand at the top of the rankings. However, that could be cut by up to three points if beaten by Scotland.
• Scotland will climb back above Italy into sixth place if they beat England before a record sellout crowd at Hive Stadium so long as the Azzurre do not defeat France.
• France, like England, cannot gain any points for beating Italy due to the 11.50 points that separate the teams before home weighting is factored in.
• They will, however, slip below Canada into fourth in defeat.
• Italy are unable to improve on sixth place as even victory by more than 15 points would still leave them trailing Australia above by 2.11 rating points.
• Wales cannot move up the rankings in their own right as victory against Ireland will not be enough in isolation, they need Scotland to also lose.
• In this instance, Wales will replace Scotland in seventh, still one place below where they started the Guinness Women’s Six Nations 2024.
• Ireland will remain 10th even if they beat Wales by more than 15 points as that would only cut the deficit to USA above them to 0.23.
• Wales cannot fall any lower than their present position of eighth in defeat.
• The same cannot be said for Ireland as they will drop out of the top 10 if beaten by more than 15 points, equalling their lowest ever rating of 11th. They occupied this position for two weeks last October.
• With only marginal gains possible for Spain, Las Leonas cannot improve on 13th if they wrap up another Rugby Europe Women’s Championship title with victory over Sweden.
• There are not enough points on offer for a Sweden win for them to catch Kazakhstan and improve on 20th place. They will remain at least 0.26 points behind the Asian side.

VIEW WORLD RUGBY WOMEN'S RANKINGS POWERED BY CAPGEMINI >>

Match officials:

• Clara Munarini (Italy) takes charge of Scotland v England for the second time, having been in the middle for England's 53-0 victory at Murrayfield in February 2020.
• Sara Cox (England) becomes the most-capped female referee in test history with Ireland v Wales her 38th test. Cox referees this fixture for the second time with Ireland running out 35-12 winners in Dublin in 2019.
• Joy Neville (Ireland) referees her 27th and final test with France v Italy in Paris on Sunday before becoming World Rugby's Elite Women's 15s Match Officials Head Coach. 
• Doriane Domenjo (France) will referee the final match of the Rugby Europe Women's Championship 2024 between Sweden and Spain, having taken charge of the latter most recently in the WXV 3 title decider with Ireland last October.