Every season, rugby fans and pundits alike ask the same question: who’s really the best team right now? 

Wins and losses tell part of the story, but they don’t always capture the nuance of performance, schedule strength or head-to-head results. That’s where our power rankings come in. 

Built on an Elo-style backbone and fine-tuned for rugby’s unique demands, the system provides a transparent and consistent way to track momentum across the season.

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The foundation is simple: all teams begin on equal footing, with a standardized rating baseline. 

From there, every match matters. Each result shifts the numbers depending not just on the outcome, but also on how the two teams matched up on paper heading into kickoff. 

A home side, for example, receives a fair boost in the expectation, reflecting the reality that hosting still carries weight in the professional era.

Once the match is played, the system looks at what was expected versus what actually happened. 

If a strong favorite wins at home, the move is small. If an underdog topples a heavyweight, the swing is significant. This allows the rankings to reward both consistency and surprise performances without over-inflating single results.

But rugby seasons aren’t just about who you beat; they’re also about who you face. To account for this, our model adjusts for the strength of schedule. A team that grinds out results against top opposition receives a small credit, compared to one that racks up points against struggling sides. It’s not an overwhelming factor, but enough to recognize that the road through a season isn’t equally paved.

When two teams are tied on rating, head-to-head results serve as the tiebreaker. If they’ve met, the winner takes the higher spot, regardless of decimal points in the rating. It’s a straightforward way to settle debates without disappearing down the rabbit hole of abstract calculations.

One of the most important parts of the system is what it deliberately avoids. There’s no margin-of-victory multiplier, which means sides aren’t rewarded for running up the score once a match is decided. There’s no competition weighting either—every result is treated with the same importance, whether it’s a clash between giants or a battle lower down the table. And there’s no recency decay, meaning early-season performances matter just as much as those in the run-in.

The final rankings are sorted using a simple, predictable process: first head-to-head, then the adjusted rating, then the raw rating, and finally alphabetical order if everything else is equal. The end result is a list that reflects both performance and fairness, avoiding the noise that comes from subjective judgment.

At its core, the power rankings are about transparency. Fans can follow along week to week, knowing that every shift is based on on-field results and clear, consistent rules. It won’t always match the table, and that’s the point. The rankings aim to answer a different question: not who sits atop the standings, but who is playing the best rugby right now.

This being said, here are the top-performing clubs per our model early in the Northern Hemisphere rugby season.

The Top 10

1. Toulouse

Rebounding from a heavy defeat at the hands of Montpellier in a major way, Stade Toulousain took out all of its frustration on Castres. 

Toulouse routed its rivals 59-12 to reassert its dominance at the top of the Top 14 table. 

2. Racing 92

Another side that had a season to forget in 2024-2025. 

The glamour boys from Paris recruited well during the offseason. 

Avoiding the big splash of chasing a high-profile playmaker, instead, they recruited the highly impressive once-capped Argentine Geronimo Prisciantelli and Aurillac’s Ugo Seunes. 

Thus far, Seunes has been a revelation, scoring 40 points in his three starts. 

If Racing has hit on a young fly-half who can lead the squad for the long-term, this could be a turning point for the club.

3. DHL Stormers

Far and away, the most impressive side in club rugby on display over the past weekend. The DHL Stormers' ruthless dismantling of Leinster set shockwaves around the URC. 

Sure, neither side was at full-strength, but in reality, the Stormers made Leinster look like a team that had never played together. 

Absolutely blitzing the Irish side at scrum time, striking from deep and dominating them in the tackle, it was the most complete Stormers performance of the past three seasons. 

4. Bath Rugby

Getting its title defense underway in perfect fashion in Round 1, Bath Rugby overcame a fast start by Harlequins at the Stoop to mount a powerful bonus-point comeback win. 

Factoring in the talent Bath is set to welcome back, namely Finn Russell and Santi Carreras, the reigning champions remain heavy favorites to go back-to-back.

5. Munster Rugby

Kicking off the Clayton McMillan era perfectly, Munster clinically dismantled the Scarlets on the road in Round 1. 

Playing a superb brand of rugby that retained the best of Munster’s attacking shape with a hard edge in defense and a well-worked kicking game, Munster looked awfully good in its first hit out.

6. Pau

Taking the Top 14 by storm through the opening month, three-win Section Paloise (Pau) trails only the reigning champion Toulouse atop the Top 14 table. 

Adding to the impressive nature of the early-season form is the absence of big offseason signing in Los Pumas captain Julian Montoya.

7. Bayonne

The Top 14’s feel-good story of last season has been built on its continual improvement over the past two seasons. 

Beating Toulon at the death with a superb drop goal in Round 4 ensured that Bayonne sits with three wins from the opening four rounds. 

Unlike just about any other side in the Top 14, Bayonne is capable of closing out close contests with winning margins of seven, three and three points so far this season. 

The team's only blemish was a heavy defeat at the hands of Castres in Round 3.

8. Lyon

Currently locked into second place on our rankings, and third on the Top 14 table, Lyon has hit the ground running following a disappointing 2024-2025 season that resulted in an 11th-place finish in the Top 14 and a loss to Bath in the EPCR Challenge Cup final. 

Adding the electric Jiuta Wainiqolo this offseason adds an extra layer of star dust to a side that, on paper, should be challenging for the knockouts.

9. Saracens

Owen Farrell 2.0 is in the building for Saracens. 

Hitting the road in Round 1, Sarries simply overwhelmed the Newcastle Red Bulls with a physical performance. 

This win catapulted the London side to the top of the table, and at present, they look the most likely side to derail a Bath repeat.

10. Bristol Bears

Injuries aside, the Bears' season could not have gotten off to a better start. 

Shredding the Leicester Tigers on Louis Rees-Zammit’s return to the Premiership in front of a big crowd, the Bears looked sharp. Unfortunately, losing their halfback pairing of Harry Randall and AJ MacGinty, plus try-scoring dynamo Gabriel Ibitoye, is a major hit. 

Still, the Bears are locked in the five log points to trail Sarries on points difference.

The Chasing Pack

11. Toulon

12. Cardiff Rugby

13. Connacht

14. Glasgow Warriors

15. Vodacom Bulls

16. Sale Sharks

17. Ulster Rugby

18. Zebre

19. La Rochelle

20. Stade Français

21. Exeter Chiefs

22. Northampton Saints

23. Montpellier

24. Benetton

25. Dragons

26. Hollywoodbets Sharks

27. Edinburgh

28. Gloucester

29. Emirates Lions

30. Leicester Tigers

31. Leinster Rugby

32. Ospreys

33. Union Bordeaux Bègles

34. Castres

35. ASM Clermont Auvergne

36. Harlequins

37. Newcastle Red Bulls

38. Scarlets

39. Montauban

40. Perpignan

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