Due to coronavirus only a few international matches were played between 2020 and 2021.

The annual update was postponed until March 1 2022, to protect the integrity of the world rankings and the qualification process for the Commonwealth Games.

The delay has given more time for the teams to secure their place on the rankings, which requires at least six matches to have been played since July 1 2018.

One hundred and thirty matches were played in the twenty-month period from July 2020 to February 2022.

Every year, the oldest year of results are dropped meaning they will not count towards the rating.

Therefore, matches played in the twelve months ending June 30 2018 have been removed.

Matches played in the year ending June 30 2020 had their weighting reduced from 100 per cent to 50 per cent as older results are given lower weighting compared to more recent ones.

All matches played since July 2020 still have a full weighting of 100 per cent.

The ranking is currently led by Australia with 3,698 points and a rating of 195, New Zealand is in second with 4,553 at 190, followed by England in third on 4,556 and a rating of 182.

South Africa remain in fifth while Jamaica has moved down to fourth and Wales is now eighth with a significant ten-point jump from 110 to 120.

Other significant changes are Scotland at ninth, Barbados 12th, Zimbabwe 13th, Fiji 15th and Samoa in 16th.

Additionally, the Isle of Man (IOM) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have both climbed five places.

IOM now sits in 23rd with a rating of 43 and the UAE is now 25th with a rating of 39.

Both Israel and Tonga lost their place as a result of not having the minimum number of matches required to continue the ranking.

The World Netball Board will decide when the next annual update will take place to ensure the ranking continues to be a reliable source of the standing of international teams performance.

The full WN world rankings table can be accessed here