On Monday, Portugal moved up two places in the World Rugby rankings to match its best-ever ranking of 16th, a day after beating Romania 38-20 in the 2023 Rugby Europe Championship.
The victory by more than 15 points, combined with Spain’s defeat at home, against Georgia, in Group A of the same competition, and also by more than 15 points (41-3), enabled the Portuguese team to beat the Spaniards and Uruguay go from 18th to current 16th place.
Spain, Portugal’s opponent in the semi-finals of the European Championship, is now in 17th place with 66.42 points, just behind Portugal, which has 66.94 points.
It is also the best points record ever for the Portuguese side, equaling the ranking achieved in 2005, a year after the ‘wolves’, led by Tomaz Morais, captured the European title.
Georgia, who will host Romania in the other semi-final of the European Championship, rose only one position, to 12th place, but surpassed Italy, a symbolic record as it is a ‘Tier 1’ team and resident of the Six Nations tournament .
With Sunday’s victory against Romania, the Portuguese team won Group B of the European Championship and guaranteed the right to play at home in the semi-final against Spain, runners-up in Group A.
The semi-finals will take place on the first weekend in March, while the final and the match for third and fourth place are scheduled for March 18 in Badajoz.
Source: DN
