Although the IRB produce a complex and continually updated ranking for men's international rugby they do not compile any ranking system for the women's game. Rugby statistician Serge Piquet has produced a currently unofficial, but generally accepted, world ranking, but where rankings are referred to by some boards these will normally be the finishing positions in the previous Women's Rugby World Cup (which only takes place every four years and will only include those countries that qualified for the finals).
The IRB's seedings for each World Cup are also influenced by positions in the previous tournament, but not entirely decided by them. The table below shows the final positions for the 2010 tournament and is therefore the closest thing to an "official" IRB ranking:
| Rank | 2010 position |
|---|---|
| 1 | New Zealand |
| 2 | England |
| 3 | Australia |
| 4 | France |
| 5 | United States |
| 6 | Canada |
| 7 | Ireland |
| 8 | Scotland |
| 9 | Wales |
| 10 | South Africa |
| 11 | Kazakhstan |
| 12 | Sweden |
Famous quotes containing the words women, union, results and/or summary:
“Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
—Bible: New Testament 1 Samuel, 18:7.
Said by the women of Israel after David killed Goliath; and overheard by Saul, who then determined to kill David.
“Our age is pre-eminently the age of sympathy, as the eighteenth century was the age of reason. Our ideal men and women are they, whose sympathies have had the widest culture, whose aims do not end with self, whose philanthropy, though centrifugal, reaches around the globe.”
—Frances E. Willard 1839–1898, U.S. president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union 1879-1891, author, activist. The Woman’s Magazine, pp. 137-40 (January 1887)
“The restlessness that comes upon girls upon summer evenings results in lasting trouble unless it is speedily controlled. The right kind of man does not look for a wife on the streets, and the right kind of girl waits till the man comes to her home for her.”
—Sedalia Times (1900)
“Product of a myriad various minds and contending tongues, compact of obscure and minute association, a language has its own abundant and often recondite laws, in the habitual and summary recognition of which scholarship consists.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)