Women's ranking
Women's ranking - In February, World Rugby delighted all women rugby players by revealing the 15-a-side women’s teams world ranking.
To date, this ranking includes 48 teams, among which 3 are from Africa. The rankings were introduced after a comprehensive process of obtaining and analysing every result from the first official women’s international matches dating back to 1987 and are based on the same criteria as the men’s rankings.
SOUTH AFRICA IS 12TH, KENYA IS 30TH AND UGANDA 39TH.
Introduction of the women’s rankings furthers anticipation ahead of an exciting 18 months of test rugby that will culminate in the much-anticipated Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 in Ireland.
In Africa, the year will be undoubtedly feminine ! Even if 15-a-side rugbystill struggles to establish itself in most unions – mainly due to lack of meansand players -sevensrugby is on the contrary seducing more and more teams.
South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tunisia, Senegal and Madagascar, are already part of the8 best African teams. In 2016, they will meet during a tournament organized in Harare (Zimbabwe).
Women’srugby offers an opportunity to somecountries to stand out from the crowd, to find its placein the African rugby. While some unionsbank on high level, the great majority try to establish Women’srugby on the long term. For this purpose, the Get Into Rugby program is another great ally. In Africa, from 211 358 players in 2015, 79 259 are girlswhich means37 % of the total number of players. A figure which won’t stop increasing with26 967 girlswho started playingrugby between 2012 and 2014 only. Since then, unions are redoubling theireffortsand setting up numerous tournaments for girls who never fail to seize an opportunity to play the game they love.
Media Contact:
About Rugby Africa:
Rugby Africa (www.RugbyAfrique.com) is the governing body of rugby in Africa and one of the regional associations under World Rugby. It unites all African countries that play rugby union, rugby sevens, and women’s rugby. Rugby Africa organizes various competitions, including the qualifying tournaments for the Rugby World Cup and the Africa Sevens, a qualifying competition for the Olympic Games. With 39 member unions, Rugby Africa is dedicated to promoting and developing rugby across the continent. World Rugby highlighted Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia as three of the six emerging nations experiencing strong growth in rugby.
