Australia return to third in latest rankings
Israel Folau scored two of Australia’s tries in the win that lifted the Wallabies above England in the rankings
Australia have returned to third in the latest IRB World Rankings after recording a 10th successive victory over their Rugby World Cup 2015 opponents Wales, 33-28 in the first round of November internationals on Saturday.
The victory, in tandem with England’s 24-21 loss to world champions New Zealand at Twickenham, has once again created an all-southern hemisphere top three with the All Blacks set to celebrate five years atop the ranking this Sunday and South Africa second despite their defeat to Ireland.
However, Ireland would have climbed above Australia were it not for JP Pietersen’s last-minute try reducing South Africa’s margin of defeat below 15 points. That score meant Ireland stayed fifth, albeit now only six tenths away from a third place they haven’t occupied since November 2006.
France have climbed one place to sixth on the back of their 40-15 victory over Fiji in Marseille, wing Teddy Thomas scoring a hat-trick on debut to lift Les Bleus above the losing Welsh. France, though, are more than four and a half points behind their RWC 2015 Pool D opponents Ireland.
Scotland improve their rating with the 41-31 victory over Argentina but remain eighth. Argentina stay 10th with Samoa falling two places to 11th on the back of a 24-13 loss to Italy, the Azzurri’s first victory of 2014 not enough to improve their position of 14th.
The defeats by Samoa and Argentina mean that Japan have returned to the top 10 and their highest ever position of ninth without playing a Test, the Japanese were in action over the weekend but only against the Maori All Blacks, losing 20-18.
USA were the only other movers in the top 20, climbing two places to 16th and swapping places with Romania, the side they beat 27-17 in Bucharest on Saturday with Takudzwa Ngwenya scoring the try of the match with a long-range effort.
Tonga and Canada did both improve their ratings with victories over Georgia and Namibia respectively, but they remain unchanged 13th and 17th. Tonga’s 23-9 victory over their RWC 2015 opponents Georgia has closed the gap to Fiji above them.
Namibia remain 22nd after the loss to Canada, while Russia have inched closer to Uruguay – the side that ended their RWC 2015 dreams last month – after winning the first of their two-Test series with Hong Kong 31-10 on Saturday. Hong Kong fall one to 25th, swapping places with Korea.
The other changes in the IRB World Rankings were all as a result of the European Nations Cup 2016 matches taking place over the weekend, with Luxembourg the biggest climbers of the last seven days with a four-place rise to 76th after an 18-13 win over Austria in Division 2C.
Austria fall four places as a result of the defeat and now occupy Luxembourg’s placing of 80th.
Moldova will play matches over the next three weekends in Division 1A and got off to a winning start with a 29-15 victory over Ukraine, a result which sees them climb one place to 28th and condemn their visitors to Chisinau to the same fall to 32nd.
The other two ENC matches were in Division 2A with the Czech Republic and Croatia both climbing one place after beating Malta and Israel respectively. The Czechs ran out 27-13 winners to rise to 35th, while Croatia were 31-20 winners and now occupy 49th place.
Malta and Israel both fall one place as a result of the defeats to 41st and 59th respectively.
Courtesy of IRB
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