World Rugby Men's Rankings preview: 18 November, 2025

World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for the conclusion of the Men's Rugby World Cup 2027 Final Qualification Tournament in Dubai on Tuesday.  

Permutation highlights:

• Samoa can improve their rating by a maximum of 0.73 points if they beat Belgium to qualify for Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.
• However, that will not be enough to improve on 17th place unless Uruguay also lose to Romania in Bucharest on Saturday.
• Samoa will slip to their lowest-ever ranking if they fail to beat Belgium with 20th place as far as they can fall depending on other results this weekend.
• Belgium can enter the world’s top 20 for the first time if they win by more than 15 points, providing that Portugal fail to win against Canada and Romania don’t beat Uruguay by the same margin.
• Namibia must beat Brazil by more than 15 points to improve on 27th place.
• Brazil can return to the top 30 if they beat Namibia, but they cannot quite overhaul their opponents as a win by more than 15 points would leave the deficit at 0.03 rating points.
• Namibia will fall at least one place in defeat but the result of the Rugby Europe Men’s Trophy 2025-26 between Poland and Czechia on Saturday is also a factor.   

Match official highlights:

• Jordan Way (Australia) takes charge of the inaugural fixture between Namibia and Brazil at the RWC 2027 Final Qualification Tournament in Dubai, having overseen the South American team's opening loss to Samoa. It will be the first time he referees Namibia since they beat Canada in November 2022.  
• Craig Evans (Wales) referees Samoa for the first time when they take on Belgium in the last match of the tournament between the top two seeds. It will be the first time he referees Belgium since they lost to Romania in 2019.