IRL World Rankings 2025: Samoa men and women make big moves

Toa Samoa has leapfrogged Tonga into fourth place in the IRL World Rankings after reaching the final of the Pacific Cup, while Fetu Samoa have continued their rapid rise up the women’s rankings to climb from 12^th spot to fifth.

International Rugby League has announced the updated world rankings ahead of the impending release of the draw for IRL Rugby League World Cup 2026 and Samoa are the most significant movers in both the men’s and women’s rankings.

Samoa enjoyed their most successful international campaign since the last World Cup in England in 2022, during which they stunned the host nation in the semi-final in London to qualify for the final against the Kangaroos.

Bolstered by the decision of Payne Haas to represent his mother’s Samoan heritage, the Toa were edged 24-18 by the Kiwis in the opening Pacific Championships match, beat arch rivals Tonga before a record 44,682 crowd in Brisbane and led 14-6 at halftime in the final but again fell short.

However, the Pacific nation has been rewarded for their performances by climbing from fifth to fourth place in the IRL World Rankings, squeezing Tonga out of the top four ranked teams in the process. Tonga are ranked fifth.  

Australia remain No.1 in the Men’s and Women’s rankings, while England retain the top Wheelchair spot they have held since defeating France in the final of RLWC21 at Manchester Central.

The Kangaroos beat England 3-0 in The Ashes, while the Jillaroos retained the women’s Pacific Cup and England held off a strong challenge from the Wheelaroos to win the recent Wheelchair Ashes Series in Australia.

New Zealand are No.2 in both the men’s and women’s rankings, ahead of England.

In the men’s rankings, Samoa are fourth, followed by Tonga (5), Papua New Guinea (6), Fiji (7), France (8) and Cook Islands (9)– both of whom recently won World Cup qualifiers for the final two men’s RLWC26 berths.

Lebanon, the other Men’s team qualified for RLWC26, have dropped from 16^th to 21^st after playing their first sanctioned match since the last World Cup in October and losing 16-14 to Italy with a team which did not include any NRL players.

In the women’s rankings, Fiji have climbed from 16^th place to 10^th after winning IRL Rugby League World Series 2025 in Canada to secure the last women’s berth at RLWC26.

Nigeria, who the Bulikula beat in the final, have risen five places from 17^th to 12^th after winning back-to-back international fixtures against Ghana and then beating Ireland 10-0 in their World Series semi-final.  

However, the biggest movers in the women’s rankings are Fetu Samoa, who were 24^th before last year’s Pacific Championships, which doubled as RLWC26 Pacific qualifiers, and 12^th at the start of this year’s tournament.

The Fetu played Australia and New Zealand after winning last year’s Pacific Bowl and beating Papua New Guinea in a promotion-relegation match for a spot in the 2025 Cup tournament.

The IRL World Rankings are calculated on each nation’s performance over the current season and the three preceding seasons. 

Points are awarded to each team for each match based on:

• the result of the match - win, lose or draw.
• The margin of victory (or defeat) - the larger the winning margin the greater the value to the rankings.
• The relative strength of opposition faced - if you play a higher ranked team that is of greater value than playing a lower ranked team.
• The date of the match – more recent matches are weighted more heavily - a result in the most recent two years is worth double a result three years ago and four times a result that is four years old.
• The importance of the match - World Cup matches are ranked top followed in order by World Cup Qualifiers, Regional Championships and one-off international matches.
• The points are then used to create the Official World Rankings by ordering the teams by virtue of the points gained over the four-year period.

Only officially sanctioned matches played at senior level between two approved members are considered as part of the rankings.

Men

The most significant movementss not involving RLWC26 teams are Serbia returning to the top 10 after winning the European Championship B division and Ukraine climbing from 17th to 12th following their triumph in Euro C.  

Serbia are now 10th after beating Netherlands and Malta, while Ukraine earned promotion into next year’s Euro B after beating Italy (17) and Greece (15).

Ukraine, who also beat Netherlands in a standalone fixture, will replace Malta (16), who lost both their matches to Serbia and Netherlands. Malta will join Greece and Euro D champions Germany in Euro C 

Netherlands (11), Wales (13) and Greece (15) have all dropped down the rankings order.

South Africa have moved from 28^th to 26^th after their World Cup qualification match against Cook Islands, while Ireland (14), Poland (20), Norway (22) and Germany (23) have also risen. Czechia (24) and Scotland (28) have dropped.

Women

Fetu Samoa’s rise pushes the Orchids and Wales, who are both also in the World Cup, down a spot to sixth and seventh respectively, while Ireland and Cook Islands remain unchanged in eight and ninth spot, ahead of Fiji (10).

Ireland beat Netherlands and lost to France before travelling to Canada for the inaugural World Series, in which they lost 10-0 to Nigeria and were beaten by the host nation in a third-place play-off.

Cook Islands won their first match since beating France at the World Cup in 2022 during this year's Pacific Championships and created history by claiming the Pacific Bowl trophy after wins over Tonga and Papua New Guinea.

Tonga, who also beat the Orchids, have risen from 15^th to 14^th spot, while Canada has dropped from 10^th to 11^th place after their loss to Fiji in the World Series.

Wheelchair

Australia are closing in on third-placed Ireland after a hard fought Ashes Series against England on the Gold Coast.

The Wheelaroos led early in the second half before going down 56-28 in the series opener and England was again forced to come from behind to snatch a 48-42 win in the last minute of the second clash.

England remain No.1, followed by France, Ireland and Australia but only the narrowest of margins now separates the Wheelaroos from Ireland.

Significantly, while Australia has closed the gap to Ireland, the back-to-back Celtic Cup have also improved their score over the course of 2025.