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Cape Town - The Springboks remain seventh on the official World Rugby rankings despite their 42-39 win over England in Johannesburg at the weekend.
READ: 5 talking points - Springboks v England, 1st Test
The Boks picked up just over one rating point but stay behind Scotland in the rankings - the Scots having beaten Canada 48-10 in Edmonton at the weekend.
England, meanwhile, slipped to fourth spot for the first time in two years. They are replaced by Australia, who beat Ireland 18-9 in Brisbane.
In ending Ireland’s 12-match winning run, the Wallabies picked up 1.07 points - enough to knock England off third spot.
For now, the Irish are safe in second place, behind New Zealand who turned in a second-half masterclass to beat France 52-11, but the difference between the Six Nations champions and the Wallabies is now down to one and a half points.
The All Blacks scored 44 unanswered points in the second half in Auckland to start their international season with a bang. However, the win did not come with any reward from a rankings point of view due to the near 15-point gap between themselves and Les Bleus who threatened to cause an upset when they led 11-8 at half-time.
Wales beat Argentina 23-10 in San Juan but remain fifth in the rankings. According to World Rugby’s official website, a win by a greater margin than 13 points would have taken them above England. As it is, they are now just six-hundredths of a point behind their neighbours in fifth. Argentina’s loss of two-thirds of a rating point drops them to 10th, below Fiji.
Top 10 in latest World Rugby standings:
1. New Zealand 93.99
2. Ireland 88.05
3. Australia 86.56
4. England 85.19
5. Wales 85.13
6. Scotland 83.83
7. South Africa 83.81
8. France 79.10
9. Fiji 77.93
10. Argentina 77.54
11. Japan 76.02
12. Georgia 74.75
13. Tonga 71.08
14. Italy 70.73
15. USA 69.39
16. Samoa 69.03
17. Romania 68.25
18. Uruguay 65.37
19. Russia 63.11
20. Spain 63.09
FULL RANKINGS LIST
