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Wales continue rankings climb

Cape Town - Wales are the only climbers on the back of the penultimate round of Six Nations matches, the defending champions swapping places with France to occupy fifth place in the latest IRB world rankings.

According to the IRB website, the Welsh ran out 28-18 winners over Scotland in a battle of the kickers at Murrayfield and now sit just under five-tenths ahead of France, who rescued a 13-13 draw with Ireland at the Aviva Stadium to ensure they will not suffer a whitewash in the 2013 Championship.

Ireland remain seventh despite the draw, having avoided sliding to their lowest ever position by avoiding defeat on home soil. Scotland remain 10th with the loss to Wales but have seen their advantage over Tonga below halved.

England remain the leading northern hemisphere nation in the rankings after surviving a second-half onslaught by Italy to win 18-11 at Twickenham on Sunday, but the result had no outcome on either side’s rating points. This means that England’s cushion over fifth place has shrunk slightly to 3.52 points.

Top 20 in the latest IRB world rankings:

1. New Zealand 90.08
2. South Africa 86.94
3. Australia 86.87
4. England 85.30
5. Wales 81.78
6. France 81.31
7. Ireland 79.17
8. Samoa 78.71
9. Argentina 78.71
10. Scotland 77.15
11. Tonga 76.10
12. Italy 74.93
13. Fiji 71.52
14. Canada 71.41
15. Japan 70.09
16. USA 68.32
17. Georgia 67.51
18. Romania 65.97
19. Russia 62.07
20. Spain 61.02
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