England leapfrog Pumas in rankings

Telling victory: France gained a place while Argentina dropped one

France's 12-6 win over Argentina in Marseilles on Saturday sees Les Bleus to climb one spot in the IRB ranking and allowed England to leapfrog the Pumas into fourth place.

The narrow victory increases France's rating points to 80.13 and sees them swap places with Wales, who suffered a 20-15 loss to world champions South Africa at the Millennium Stadium.

Argentina had occupied fourth position, albeit only by two tenths from England, and so defeat by a lower ranked side means these two swap places, England's 39-13 defeat of the Pacific Islanders at Twickenham not being eligible for the rankings.

The Pumas now sit nearly a rating point adrift of England, but two clear of their conquerors France and will be looking to regain that fourth spot when they face Italy and Ireland, both ranked below them, over the next two weekends.

With the IRB World Rankings as they stand on 30 November being used to seed the 12 automatic qualifiers from RWC 2007 for the Pool Allocation Draw for the 2011 tournament the following day, every result is vital.

The top three positions remain unchanged with New Zealand occupying top spot from South Africa and Australia after all three enjoyed away victories on Saturday, although both the Springboks and Wallabies did improve their rating points slightly.

Ireland's 55-0 defeat of Canada at Thomond Park in Limerick on Saturday had no major impact on either side's rating points so they remain eighth and fifteenth respectively.

The loss for Italy has not altered their position of tenth, although they now sit less than a hundredth above Fiji, who along with Tonga are the two other automatic qualifiers for RWC 2011 besides the top 10 in the IRB World Rankings.

There is one further change in the top 20 with USA climbing one place to 19th after their 43-19 victory over Uruguay, the side they ironically swap places with. USA now have a two-point cushion over Uruguay before heading to Japan for two Tests.

World Rankings:

1(1) New Zealand 92.41

2(2) South Africa 88.28

3(3) Australia 85.65

4(5) England 83.16

5(4) Argentina 82.22

6(7) France 80.13

7(6) Wales 79.58

8(8) Ireland 77.18

9(9) Scotland 76.92

10(10) Italy 75.24

11(11) Fiji 75.24

12(12) Samoa 72.57

13(13) Tonga 70.05

14(14) Georgia 69.43

15(15) Canada 69.12

16(16) Japan 67.35

17(17) Romania 67.20

18(18) Russia 64.63

19(20) USA 64.25

20(19) Uruguay62.55

With Thanks to the IRB