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RWC 2015 rankings completed

Johannesburg - The rankings for the Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015 draw have been completed following Saturday's two internationals.

Wales' 16-15 loss to Australia sees the Dragons drop into the third band for Monday's draw, while Argentina move up into the second band as a result.

Wales went into their final Test of the year ranked seventh in the world, but following their loss to Australia, both Samoa and Argentina will rise above them in the world rankings when they are also published on Monday.

Australia were already assured of a place in band one for the draw after last weekend’s narrow win over Italy, but their win in Cardiff will see them close the gap to South Africa in second.

England were celebrating at Twickenham after ending the 20-match unbeaten run of world champions New Zealand with an impressive 38-21 victory.

England will remain fifth in the rankings but the gap to France above them will be slashed by nearly three points after the win over New Zealand, who remain the No 1 side in the world.

The IRB World Rankings have been used to rank the 12 directly qualified teams for RWC 2015 into three bands for the RWC 2015 Pool Allocation Draw.

The sides ranked one to four in band one - and crucially avoiding each other until the knockout stages - those five to eight in band two and the remaining four in band three.

The bands will be confirmed on Monday:

Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France

Band 2: England, Ireland, Samoa, Argentina

Band 3: Wales, Italy, Tonga, Scotland

Latest IRB World Rankings:

1 New Zealand - 90.08 points

2 South Africa - 86.94

3 Australia - 86.87

4 France - 85.07

5 England - 83.90

6 Ireland - 80.22

7 Samoa - 78.71

8 Argentina - 78.71

9 Wales - 78.39

10 Italy - 76.24

11 Tonga - 76.10

12 Scotland - 75.83

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