Lithuania, Brazil and Korea all celebrated important victories in their own right this weekend in games where promotion, silverware and RWC 2019 qualifying points were on the line.

Many of the matches also affected the World Rugby Rankings with Lithuania joined by the likes of Chile and Thailand in climbing the rankings.

As well as lifting them one place to their highest-ever ranking of 34th at Uganda’s expense, Lithuania’s 81-10 win over Malta earned them promotion to the Rugby Europe Trophy for next season.

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They ran in 13 tries in a victory that was worth nine-tenths of a rating point. Blindside flanker Martynas Llanzbergas scored a first-half hat-trick in the play-off between the Conference 1 North and South champions and then helped himself to another try eight minutes after the restart as Lithuania over-powered the Mediterranean island nation.

Winger Domantas Baguzis also crossed the line on three occasions, while fly-half Kestutis Marcisauskas dotted down once and kicked six conversions for a 17-point haul.

Lithuania can now look forward to playing against Portugal, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Poland in the second tier of Rugby Europe’s competition structure.

Brazil win Sudamerica 6 Nations

In South America, the inaugural Sudamericano 6 Naciones title went to Brazil after they completed an unbeaten campaign with a convincing 67-5 win over Colombia at the Sao Paulo Athletic Club.

Their fifth biggest win in test rugby seemed unlikely when prop Jonatas Paulo was sent off approaching the half-hour mark with the score at 13-0 in their favour following a converted try from flanker Arthur Bergo and two penalties from the boot of fly-half Josh Reeves. Shortly after, Brazil were reduced to 13 men for 10 minutes following a yellow card to second-row Cléber Dias but despite the numerical disadvantage, they held on and kept their line intact.

Then, showing the sort of spirit that had seen them come back from 33-3 down to beat Argentina XV the week before, Brazil cut the Colombian defence to ribbons with some superb attacking play.

Tries came at regular intervals with the influential Moises Duque crowning another fine display with a brace of tries. Gabriel Paganini, Lucas Tranquez, the Sancery twins Daniel and Felipe, and winger De Wet van Niekerk joined him on the scoresheet.

With the game almost up replacement scrum-half Oscar Forero managed a consolation try for the shell-shocked Colombians.

As a full-blown test, the game counted towards the rankings but Brazil remain on 56.81 points and in 26th place because of the large points differential between the sides before kick-off. 

The Brazilians were the only team to finish unbeaten in Sudamerica’s rebranded and expanded top-tier competition, with Argentina XV claiming second place after defeating Uruguay XV 64-15 in Buenos Aires in the closing game on Sunday. Chile finished third after a 97-0 win over Paraguay in Santiago. One more try would have equalled their biggest-ever score in tests, also against Paraguay.

Argentina XV recovered strongly against a near first-choice Uruguay XV to score 10 tries in a game that marked Matías Moroni’s first game of the year after long-term injury. He scored one, with full-back Gastón Arias getting a hat trick and flanker Rodrigo Bruni scoring a brace.

Uruguay XV were outplayed, yet managed a great try from wing Nicolás Freitas, who dumbfounded the last line of defence.

The teams will meet again next month in the World Rugby Nations Cup.

Chile followed up their second-round victory over Uruguay XV with a mammoth win against a Paraguayan side that was never in the game.

They scored their first try inside two minutes and continued to pile on the points before going into the break leading 54-0. Santiago Videla sealed a hat-trick before the first quarter was up and José Ignacio Larenas helped himself to a double.

Los Condores added seven more tries after the break and a new all-time record score would have been theirs had full-back Tomás Ianiszewski nailed three more conversion kicks. Ianiszewski still managed 11 from 15 and added two tries for a personal tally of 32 points – the most scored by a Chilean player in a test match.

Chile gained a third of a rating point for the victory which was enough to take them above Kenya and into 29th place.

Korea keep the dream alive

It was also a busy weekend in Asia where Korea stayed in the race for a place in the RWC 2019 global repechage and Kazakhstan were crowned Division III Central champions after wins over Mongolia (55-6) and Pakistan (48-0) in the space of three days.

Korea beat Malaysia for the second time in the Asia Rugby Championship Top 3, which doubles as the region’s RWC 2019 qualification tournament, to maintain the pressure on Hong Kong.

In the opening match of Division II of the Asia Rugby Championship, Thailand’s hard-fought 18-12 win at home to India brought them half a rating point and a two-place rise above the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria to 72nd.

Meanwhile, in the Rugby Americas North Championship, Trinidad and Tobago beat Bermuda 27-24 but with more than eight places and 25 places between the nations, they were unable to improve upon their rankings position of 51st.

It was a great performance from Bermuda considering the gulf between the nations and for brief periods either side of half-time they led their higher-ranked opponents. However, a late try from Anderson Joseph ultimately sealed the game in Trinidad and Tobago’s favour.