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Boks move up to third in rankings

Cape Town - A fifth straight win for the Springboks has taken them above Ireland and into third in the official World Rugby rankings.

Following on from their 37-15 win over Argentina in Port Elizabeth last week, the South Africans completed the double over Los Pumas in the Rugby Championship when they recorded an impressive 41-23 victory in Salta on Saturday.

The Springboks’ highest score since they downed the USA 64-0 at Rugby World Cup 2015 was worth 1.15 points, taking them up one spot to a total of 85.66 - just under three tenths more than Ireland.

Los Pumas have only won one of their last eight fixtures and are currently languishing in 10th place in the rankings, on exactly 78 points.

The All Blacks are unchanged, on 95.21 points, at the top of the rankings after withstanding a fearsome challenge from a fired-up Australia.

Stung by the criticism that followed their 54-34 loss to the All Blacks in Sydney in round one, the Wallabies contributed fully to a classic duel in Dunedin and looked set to register their first win over their great rivals since 2015 when Kurtley Beale’s late try gave them a one-point lead.

But New Zealand responded straight from the restart, reclaiming possession before a patient build-up resulted in Beauden Barrett going over for the match-winning score with two minutes remaining.

With 11 points and four places between the sides at kick-off, Bledisloe Cup holders New Zealand did not pick up any reward from a rankings perspective and they remain 5.07 points clear of second-placed England.

Top 20 in latest World Rugby standings:

1. New Zealand 95.21
2. England 90.14
3. South Africa 85.66
4. Ireland 85.39
5. Australia 84.21
6. Scotland 82.47
7. Wales 81.73
8. France 79.63
9. Fiji 79.48
10. Argentina 78.00
11. Japan 73.79
12. Georgia 73.41
13. Tonga 71.72
14. Italy 71.00
15. Romania 70.27
16. Samoa 69.67
17. USA 65.84
18. Uruguay 63.15
19. Spain 63.15
20. Russia 63.13

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