This weekend sees a fascinating clash for top spot in World Rugby, following the publishing of World Rugby’s ranking permutations for the men’s internationals in Europe, Asia and Africa this weekend.

As many as three teams – South Africa, New Zealand and Ireland – could finish the weekend at number one in the rankings. However, South Africa are guaranteed to stay on top if they beat England at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

New Zealand will replace South Africa at number one if they beat France at the Stade de France and the Springboks fail to win. It would be the first time the All Blacks sit atop the rankings since the Rugby World Cup 2019 semi-final.

Ireland need to beat Argentina in the weekend’s opening Autumn Nations Series match on Friday and hope that both South Africa and New Zealand lose if they are to immediately return to number one in the world.

Back-to-back home defeats for Ireland will see them slip another place to fourth if the margin is by more than 15 points and both South Africa and New Zealand are victorious.

Ireland will drop two places for the second week running – to fifth – if they lose by more than 15 points and France repeat their Rugby World Cup 2023 opening match victory over New Zealand. This will be regardless of the England-South Africa result.

With Scotland unable to improve their rating by beating Portugal this weekend – as a result of the 13.88 points difference between the teams before home weighting is factored in – then England only need to draw with South Africa to displace their Calcutta Cup rivals in sixth.

England cannot go any higher, though, even if beat the world champions by more than 15 points as the gap between themselves and a beaten France or Argentina is too large to overcome.