Latest World Rankings: Georgia overtake Italy
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Ireland, Georgia and Portugal all climb the World Rugby Rankings while Russia fall to their lowest position in over 14 years.
While there were few surprises in the Six Nations in terms of results with home wins for Ireland and France and a victory for England against the lower-ranked Scotland, the same cannot be said of the Rugby Europe Championship where Romania and Russia were on the wrong side of upsets.
Barely three months since they competed at Rugby World Cup 2019, Russia succumbed to a 38-12 defeat to Belgium in Brussels on Saturday, while Romania went down 22-11 to newly-promoted Portugal in Lisbon.
However, Georgia came through unscathed the following day against a Spain team bidding to create history and playing in front of a sizeable and vocal home crowd in Madrid.
Defending Rugby Europe Championship champions Georgia move above Italy and into 12th position in the rankings as a result of the victory – their 12th in a row in the Rugby Europe Championship.
France remain in eighth place after a mixed bag of a performance which was capped by a fine solo score by replacement scrum-half Baptiste Serin.
Portugal's first win over Romania in seven attempts saw them pick up 1.22 points, enough for them to move into the world's top 20 for the first time since November 2011.
It was an historic day for Belgium rugby as the Black Devils enjoyed their first-ever victory over Russia.
The two full rating points awarded to Belgium for the 38-12 victory are not enough for them to improve on 27th place but they are now only 1.32 points behind Brazil. Russia, meanwhile, drop five places to 25th, their lowest position since November 2005.
In the Six Nations, the only change of note came as a result of Ireland's 24-14 defeat of defending champions Wales in Dublin. Having picked up a fraction under half a point from their trip north, England close the gap on second-placed New Zealand to 4.3 points.
