For all the talk of Wales potentially reaching the top of the World Rugby Rankings at the All Blacks' expense, it was two of Eddie Jones' former teams – Australia and Japan – and his current employers England who were the headline acts of the weekend.
Taking Japan for starters, the Brave Blossoms continued their impressive pre-Rugby World Cup 2019 form by dispatching the USA 34-20 in Suva to claim the World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup and also earn enough rating points to leapfrog Fiji, who ended the tournament with a 10-3 win against Samoa, and Argentina in the rankings.
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- Jordie Barrett over Damian de Allende is far from being correct. The hype around Dupont is also overreaching, he's probably 4th in the world and has been since the 2023 WC. He also avoids certain matchups which is strange. The rest of the list is pretty good apart from minor subjective biases.JasonMarlow16-09-2026
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