Our team of data scientists have crunched stats and figures from over 6,000 rugby matches played by 99 teams since 1995. Check out some of the insights they've derived from the top 20 teams.
Read more about how we've drawn these insights here.
| Win Rates What are the average win rates? |
Average Results What are the average results, i.e. average points scored by and against each team? |
Upsets: Wins & Losses |
| The Ultimate Rugby World Cup SA v SCO Infographic with all the stats for the South Africa v Scotland match on 3 October! |
Rugby World Cup SA v USA Infographic with all the stats for the South Africa v USA match on 7 October! |
Upsets: Who caused the most |
| The Ultimate All Blacks Infographic Great insights on the All Blacks' performance over the past 20 years! |
The Ultimate Springboks Infographic Great insights on the Springboks' performance over the past 20 years! |
The Ultimate Wallabies Infographic Great insights on the Wallabies' performance over the past 20 years! |
| The Ultimate Rugby World Cup Quarterfinals South Africa v Wales Infographic packed full of stats for the SA vs Wales match on 17 October! |
The Ultimate Rugby World Cup Quarterfinals New Zealand v France Infographic packed full of stats for the New Zealand vs France match on 17 October! |
The Ultimate Rugby World Cup Quarterfinals Ireland v Argentina Infographic packed full of stats for the Ireland vs Argentina match on 18 October! |
| The Ultimate Rugby World Cup Quarterfinals Australia v Scotland Infographic packed full of stats for the Australia vs Scotland match on 18 October! |
The Ultimate Rugby World Cup semi-finals South Africa v New Zealand Infographic packed full of stats for the South Africa vs New Zealand match on 24 October! |
The Ultimate Rugby World Cup semi-finals Australia v Argentina Infographic packed full of stats for the Australia vs Argentina match on 25 October! |
Below is an overview of the win rate for rugby's top 20 teams over the past 20 years. The table shows what percentage of matches played were won by the specified team.
| Team | Percentage of matches won | # of matches played |
| New Zealand | 84.38% | 192 |
| Australia | 66.07% | 168 |
| South Africa | 62.77% | 231 |
| England | 61.40% | 171 |
| Georgia | 60.71% | 112 |
| France | 54.14% | 181 |
| Fiji | 53.19% | 94 |
| Argentina | 52.94% | 153 |
| Romania | 51.97% | 127 |
| Samoa | 51.52% | 99 |
| Ireland | 50.88% | 171 |
| Namibia | 50.77% | 65 |
| Japan | 49.17% | 120 |
| Wales | 47.90% | 238 |
| Uruguay | 44.93% | 138 |
| Canada | 43.80% | 121 |
| Scotland | 40.88% | 181 |
| Tonga | 37.84% | 111 |
| United States of America | 32.54% | 126 |
| Italy | 23.66% | 186 |
AVERAGE RESULTS
Our guys had a look at all match results and calculated the average points scored by each team specified and their opposing team, resulting as well in an average spread for all matches played by the team over the past 20 years.
| Team | Average points scored by the team | Average points by the opposing team | Average difference |
| New Zealand | 36.9 | 15.8 | 21.6 |
| Australia | 28.9 | 18.6 | 10.4 |
| England | 28.5 | 19.2 | 9.4 |
| South Africa | 28.4 | 20.0 | 8.4 |
| Argentina | 29.7 | 23.0 | 6.7 |
| Georgia | 23.5 | 17.7 | 5.9 |
| Japan | 31.3 | 26.4 | 4.9 |
| France | 24.3 | 21.2 | 3.1 |
| Ireland | 23.4 | 20.9 | 2.5 |
| Namibia | 30.4 | 28.4 | 2.0 |
| Wales | 25.7 | 24.2 | 1.9 |
| Romania | 24.7 | 24.1 | 0.6 |
| Fiji | 25.6 | 26.9 | -1.3 |
| Uruguay | 23.8 | 25.2 | -1.4 |
| Samoa | 23.5 | 25.4 | -1.9 |
| Canada | 23.0 | 26.0 | -3.1 |
| Scotland | 20.3 | 23.5 | -3.1 |
| Tonga | 24.4 | 28.5 | -4.1 |
| United States of America | 22.3 | 29.6 | -6.5 |
| Italy | 18.0 | 31.1 | -13.0 |
On average, over the past 20 years, 20% of all matches played were considered upsets. An upset is defined as a win by a team ranking lower than the team beaten.
The table below shows how many of the matches played by each team were upsets. In the first example, 27% of all matches played by Ireland were upsets, i.e. a lower-ranking team beat them or they beat a higher-ranking team.
| Team | Percentage of matches that were upsets |
| Ireland | 27% |
| Fiji | 26% |
| France | 26% |
| Tonga | 26% |
| South Africa | 25% |
| Namibia | 25% |
| Japan | 25% |
| Georgia | 24% |
| Samoa | 24% |
| Australia | 23% |
| United States of America | 23% |
| Canada | 23% |
| Scotland | 22% |
| England | 22% |
| Argentina | 20% |
| Wales | 20% |
| Romania | 17% |
| Uruguay | 15% |
| Italy | 14% |
| New Zealand | 13% |
If we look at the winning teams causing the most upsets, we get the following table. Below we see, for example, that 54% of the matches won by the USA were upsets. So, hedge your bets when betting against these teams!
| Team | Percentage of wins that were upsets |
| United States of America | 54% |
| Italy | 52% |
| Scotland | 39% |
| Tonga | 31% |
| France | 29% |
| Japan | 25% |
| Fiji | 24% |
| Argentina | 22% |
| England | 22% |
| Wales | 21% |
| Canada | 19% |
| Romania | 17% |
| Ireland | 16% |
| Namibia | 15% |
| Uruguay | 15% |
| South Africa | 13% |
| Samoa | 12% |
| Australia | 12% |
| Georgia | 10% |
| New Zealand | 0% |
