The most successful teams in
women's international rugby union
Women's international rugby union has a history dating back to the late 19th century. It was not until 1982 that the first international fixture ( test match) took place. The match was organised in connection with the Dutch Rugby Union's 50th anni ...
have been England, France, and New Zealand.
Fifteens
Current playing records
25 matches or more
10-24 matches
Fewer than 10 matches
Year of first international
*1982: : (1); (1)
*1984: : (3)
*1985: : (4)
*1986: : (6); (5)
*1987: : (9); (7); (9); (7)
*1989: : (11); (10)
*1990: : (12); (13); World XV(14)
*1991: : (15)
*1993: : (16); (18);(16)
*1994: : (20); (19)
*1995: : (21)
*1998: : (22)
*2000: : (23)
*2003: : (24); (26); (24); (26)
*2004: : (29); (31); (29); (28)
*2005: : (34); (32); (32); (34)
*2006: : (40); (36); (39); (38); (40);(37)
*2007: : (42); (42); (42); (42); (46); (46)
*2008: : (48); (49); (49)
*2009: : (51); (53); (52)
*2010: : (54);
Caribbean XV (55)
*2011: : (57); (58); (56)
*2013: : (59); (59)
Year of last international
*2014 : ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
*2013 : ; ; ; ;
*2012 : ; ; ; ; ;
*2011 :
Caribbean Select XV; ; ; ;
*2010 : ; ; ;
*2009 : ; ;
*2008 : ; ; ;
*2007 : ; ; ;
*2006 : ;
*2005 : ; ;
*2004 :
*1995 :
*1991 :
*1990 :
Official rankings
IRB World Ranking
Although the IRB produce a complex and continually updated ranking for men's international rugby they do not compile any ranking system for
the women's game
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
. Rugby statistician Serge Piquet has produced a currently unofficial, but generally accepted
world ranking but where rankings are referred to by some boards these will normally be the finishing positions in the previous
Women's Rugby World Cup
The Women's Rugby World Cup is the women's rugby union world championship which is organised by World Rugby. The first Rugby World Cup for women was held in 1991, but it was not until the 1998 tournament that the tournament received official b ...
(which only takes place every four years and will only include those countries that qualified for the finals).
The IRB's seedings for each World Cup are also influenced by positions in the previous tournament, but not entirely decided by them. The table below shows the final positions for the
2014 tournament and is therefore the closest thing to an "official" IRB ranking:
Rugby Europe Ranking
Rugby Europe
Rugby Europe is the administrative body for rugby union in Europe. It was formed in 1999 to promote, develop, organise, and administer the game of rugby in Europe under the authority of World Rugby (the sport's global governing body). However, it ...
, formerly known as FIRA-AER, do produce an annual ranking of European nations, based on previous season's
Rugby Europe
Rugby Europe is the administrative body for rugby union in Europe. It was formed in 1999 to promote, develop, organise, and administer the game of rugby in Europe under the authority of World Rugby (the sport's global governing body). However, it ...
and
Six Nations competitions, for use in RE tournaments (though Six Nations teams are often given a higher seeding in tournaments than their ranking might suggest). As these will be based on more recent performances they can contradict the IRB list and also include countries not featuring in the World Cup-based ranking. On the other hand, they obviously only include European nations. Rankings
As described on the RE website
/ref> (based on previous season results) appear to be:
Sevens
Current playing record (to end of 2011)
Detailed results from a small number of tournaments, especially in Africa and Asia, have never been published. The following table therefore relates to the published tournament results. Note: Almost all of New Zealand's sevens matches - apart from the 2009 World Cup and qualifier and two Hong Kong Sevens - have been played by "Aotearoa Maori" and (before 2000) "New Zealand Wild Ducks". While in some cases they were officially sanctioned by the NZRU, neither were full New Zealand teams, and occasionally included players not eligible to play for New Zealand. As a result, they are not included in the table below. ''The playing record of these unofficial New Zealand teams is: Played 59, Won 55, Lost 4, 93.22%.''
Year of first international
Official rankings
IRB World Ranking
As with rankings for 15-a-side rugby, IRB rankings for Sevens are based on the finishing positions in the previous World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
. The table below shows the final positions for the 2009 tournament:
Rugby Europe Ranking
Rugby Europe
Rugby Europe is the administrative body for rugby union in Europe. It was formed in 1999 to promote, develop, organise, and administer the game of rugby in Europe under the authority of World Rugby (the sport's global governing body). However, it ...
also produce an annual ranking of European nations, based on previous season's RE championships
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this sys ...
which are used for the following season's tournaments. Current rankings are:
References
{{Women's rugby union