2013-19 World Rankings - Men

Looking back over these years gives an insight into the growth of the sport numerically. It also shows the challenge of creating depth in quality. Otherwise the list will be of a few successes and the rest stragglers. It's not an issue unique to RL and it takes money plus commitment to have any hope of lifting lower ranked countries to a stronger level.

Recently, quite a few countries have been dropped from the list. I don't see anything said about that as to what is the reason for that, although I'm sure there is a process that is gone through in determining who is eligible either way.

Because the number of games played is important on where a team sits on the ladder, it doesn't always reflect the level a nation is playing at. Looking over several years does give an idea of how a country is progressing or regressing.

		Nation	19	18	17	16	15	14	13
		New Zealand	1	3	2	2	1	2	2
		Australia	2	1	1	1	2	1	1
		England	3	2	3	3	3	3	3
		Tonga	4	4	4	14	16	16	13
		Fiji	5	5	5	7	7	6	5
		PNG	6	10	10	15	14	11	7
		Samoa	7	7	6	5	4	4	8
		France	8	6	8	6	5	5	4
		Scotland	9	8	7	4	9	8	11
		Lebanon	10	9	9	21	20	23	20
		Greece	11	19	23	28	24	22	28
		Ireland	12	12	11	8	6	7	9
		Italy	13	13	13	13	12	12	12
		Wales	14	11	12	9	8	9	6
		Serbia	15	17	16	11	11	13	17
		Malta	16	16	18	20	18	24	22
		Norway	17	20	22	26	26	19	19
		USA	18	15	14	10	10	10	10
		Poland	19	23
		Jamaica	20	14	15	17	27	27	23
		Hungary	21	18	29	38	33	32	32
		Czech Rep	22	25	26	24	30	29	26
		Cook Is	23	43	30	25	22	17	14
		Turkey	24	31
		Netherlands	25	26	27	30	28	25	24
		Spain	26	28	21	19	21	28
		Canada	27	21	17	12	13	14	16
		Nigeria	28
		Solomon Is	29	27	42	37
		Sweden	30	38	31	29	29	30	31
		Germany	31	30	28	23	19	18	18
		Chile	32	32	32	34
		Ghana	33
		Morocco	34		48	40	35	34	33
		Vanuatu	35	33	36	35
		South Africa	36	37	35	31	31	31	25
		Russia	37	29	19	16	15	15	15
		Cameroon	38
		Ukraine	39	35	25	22	23	20	21
		Colombia	40	41	40
		Brazil	41	45	43
		Belgium	42	39	20	18	17	21	29
		Denmark	43	44	34	27	25	26	27
		Bulgaria	44	47	46
		Latvia	45	48	47	36	34	33	30
		Philippines		22	24	33
		Niue		24	33	32	32
		Japan		34	41
		El Salvador		36	37	39
		Hong Kong		40	45
		Argentina		42	39
		Uruguay		46	44
		Thailand			38