Springboks close rankings gap on England

Cape Town - The Springboks have edged closer to fourth-placed England on the official World Rugby rankings after their 35-17 Rugby Championship win over Australia at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Rassie Erasmus' Boks remain in fifth spot, but picked up just over seven-tenths of a rating point to reduce the gap between themselves and England to just under one point.

Following their defeat, sixth-place Australia's cushion over Scotland is down to one-and-a-half points.

Elsewhere, an improvement of at least one place was on offer for an historic Argentina victory against New Zealand - two if the margin was more than 15 points - but despite keeping the All Blacks side scoreless in the second half, they fell just short and had to settle for a losing bonus point in a 20-16 defeat.

Instead, Los Pumas stay in 10th place in the rankings with the All Blacks on track to mark an unbroken decade at the top later this year.

Top 20 in the latest World Rugby rankings:

1. New Zealand 92.54
2. Wales 89.96
3. Ireland 88.69
4. England 86.27
5. South Africa 85.30
6. Australia 81.68
7. Scotland 80.17
8. France 79.42
9. Fiji 77.95
10. Argentina 77.05
11. Japan 75.24
12. Georgia 74.42
13. Tonga 73.02
14. Italy 72.04
15. USA 71.71
16. Samoa 68.78
17. Spain 68.15
18. Romania 66.69
19. Uruguay 65.18
20. Russia 64.81

Others:

23. Namibia 61.01
32. Kenya 52.25
36. Zimbabwe 49.28

FULL RANKINGS