All Blacks extend rankings lead, Boks stay 3rd

Cape Town - New Zealand extended their advantage over England at the top of the World Rugby rankings to 6.81 points after a stunning 42-8 win against Australia - their 12th victory on the bounce in all competitions - in Sydney on Saturday.

WATCH: Elton Jantjies 'falcons' skipper Adriaan Strauss!

According to the World Rugby website, the All Blacks gained two tenths of a rating point to take their overall tally to 96.30 with England second with 89.49 points. Australia remain fourth despite the heavy defeat.

Steve Hansen’s side scored four tries in a thoroughly one-sided first half that saw the Wallabies lose three centres to injury - Matt Giteau, Rob Horne and Matt Toomua - and added two more after the break. Make-shift wing Nick Phipps grabbed a late consolation for the Wallabies, who had enjoyed a short-lived lead early on after Bernard Foley’s penalty.

South Africa, meanwhile, came back from 10 points down with 10 minutes to go to get their Rugby Championship campaign off to a winning start against Argentina.

Warren Whiteley spared the Springboks’ blushes with a 78th-minute try but they will be hoping for a much improved performance for the return fixture in Salta this weekend.

After conceding the first try, Argentina led 13-10 at the break thanks to Matias Orlando’s try and eight points from the boot of Nicolas Sanchez.

Elton Jantjies' penalty 15 minutes into the second half levelled the scores at 13-13 but Sanchez, passing 400 Test points in the process, restored the visitor's lead with a quarter of an hour to play with his third penalty.

Santiago Cordero set the alarm bells ringing among the 27 000-strong crowd in Nelspruit when he finished off a break from the impressive Manuel Montero to put Los Pumas 23-13 up. But with man-of-the-match Faf de Klerk growing increasingly influential and Jantjes’ finding his goal-kicking boots, South Africa rallied to snatch an unconvincing victory with converted tries for fullback Johan Goosen and Whiteley.

The Springboks remain in third place in the rankings after a marginal gain of nine hundredths with Argentina unchanged in ninth.