Ireland’s loss to Scotland has seen them drop from fourth place in the world rankings to sixth place and also helped France move to fifth place.

England’s victory over Wales sees them take the fourth place in the world rankings but Wales maintain their seventh placed ranking.

The Irish defeat means Declan Kidney’s men are no longer the leading northern hemisphere nation in the rankings behind New Zealand, Australia and South Africa – a position they have held since ending England’s hopes of a Six Nations Grand Slam back in March.

England now occupy fourth spot following their 23-19 victory over Wales at Twickenham on Saturday, while France also climb one to fifth despite not being in action over the weekend, Marc Lièvremont’s men only resuming their preparations with the visit of Ireland to Bordeaux this Saturday night.

Wales remain seventh despite the loss to England, while the margin of victory was not big enough for Scotland to improve their position of ninth, although they have slashed the deficit to Argentina above them to only four tenths.

At the top of the IRB World Rankings, New Zealand have slightly increased their cushion over Australia after preserving a 25-year winning streak over the Wallabies at Eden Park with a 30-14 victory in their Tri Nations encounter on Saturday.

The gain was only marginal though at seven hundredths with the All Blacks’ cushion over their trans Tasman rivals now having grown to 6.68 points as the Wallabies head to Durban to face South Africa in match four of the 2011 Tri Nations.

Three other sides counting down the days until Rugby World Cup 2011 kicks off on 9 September were also in action over the weekend with Canada edging their neighbours USA 28-22 in Toronto and Argentina beating a South American XV 78-15 in San Juan.

Canada’s victory on home soil was not by a big enough margin to improve their ranking of 16th, although they have closed to within 0.12 rating points of Georgia above them.

The USA Eagles remain 17th, albeit now 3.8 points behind Canada ahead of the return match in Denver this Saturday.

IRB World Rankings
08 August 2011
1(1) NEW ZEALAND 93.26
2(2) AUSTRALIA 86.58
3(3) SOUTH AFRICA 85.24
4(5) ENGLAND 82.89
5(6) FRANCE 82.06
6(4) IRELAND 81.29
7(7) WALES 79.14
8(8) ARGENTINA 78.97
9(9) SCOTLAND 78.57
10(10) SAMOA 74.55
11(11) ITALY 73.54
12(12) JAPAN 72.56