World Rankings: France fall

NEWS: An extraordinary Six Nations 2021 came to a thrilling conclusion in Paris on Friday with a last-gasp 27-23 win for Scotland over title-chasing France.

Duhan van der Merwe’s second try with the last play of the game saw Scotland win in the French capital for the first time in the Six Nations era and resulted in a climb of one place in the World Rugby’s Men’s Rankings to eighth.

France had gone into the match chasing a bonus-point victory by 21 clear points in the hope of securing their first Six Nations title since 2010.

Brice Dulin, Damian Penaud and Swan Rebbadj crossed for the hosts but they were never really in control of the scoreboard against a pumped-up Scotland side.

And Van der Merwe’s tries either side of David Cherry’s 61st effort ensured the Scots defied the loss of Finn Russell to a red card to create their own piece of history.

With the loss of 1.9 rating points, France fall below England and Ireland to fifth in the rankings, with newly-crowned Six Nations 2021 champions Wales just 0.83 of a point behind them in sixth.

Scotland’s improved position comes at the expense of Argentina who fall to ninth.

France's defeat also means that England and Ireland moved up to third and fourth, respectively.

South Africa lead the pack with New Zealand in the second spot.