South Africa were the biggest losers in the top 10 of world rugby rankings during the glut of Test matches that took place in November.
Ireland and Scotland both gained ground from a rankings perspective, while the Springboks slid down from fourth to sixth spot as the jockeying for positions ahead of next May’s Rugby World Cup 2019 draw intensified over the past month.
If the pools were drawn now, New Zealand (currently ranked one), England (two), Australia (three) and Ireland (four) would be kept apart as they are ranked as the top four seeds among the 12 direct qualifiers from RWC 2015.
With four pools of five teams, each top seed is drawn with a side ranked fifth to eighth and then one from ninth to 12th. The remaining eight teams are drawn from two further bands.
So it is possible that New Zealand, who celebrated their seven-year anniversary as the world’s top-ranked team during November, could be drawn alongside two of last year’s RWCup semifinalists, South Africa and Argentina, in a pool every bit as tasty as the one that confronted England when paired with Australia, Wales, Fiji and Uruguay in Pool A at RWC 2015.
There was no stopping Eddie Jones’s England as recent wins over South Africa (37-21), Fiji (58-15), Argentina (27-14) and Australia (37-21) took them past the 90-point mark in the rankings and equalled their best-ever run of 14 straight victories.
The All Blacks rallied well after their record 18-match winning run came to an end with defeat against Ireland (40-29) in Chicago, beating Italy (68-10), Ireland (21-9) and France (24-19). Nevertheless, over the course of the month, their lead at the top of the rankings was cut from 7.08 points to 4.32.
Latest World Ranking (with previous position, points gained and lost):
1 New Zealand (1)
2 England (2)
3 Ireland (6) +3
4 Australia (3) -1
5 Wales (5)
6 South Africa (4) -2
7 Scotland (7)
8 Argentina (8)
9 France (9)
10 Fiji (11) +1
African News Agency (ANA)
