France have moved up from fifth place in the IRB’s Rugby World rankings to third place knocking South Africa out of the top three making them the first northern hemisphere nation to occupy this position in nearly 16 months.
England also moved up from sixth place to fifth place as a result of Wales dropping from fourth to sixth place after they lost by one point to France.
France were the last side to break the Tri Nations’ stranglehold on the top three, albeit only for a week as their 41-13 loss in Argentina on 26 June 2010 allowed Australia to regain the place they had lost on the back of a defeat by England on home soil the previous weekend.
The tense 9-8 victory over 14-man Wales in the first semi-final at Eden Park on Saturday sees France climb above not only their opponents but also South Africa, who slip out of the top three for the first time since the beginning of Rugby World Cup 2007.
Wales have slipped two places to sixth, the position they occupied when they arrived in New Zealand, after missing out on a first ever Rugby World Cup Final appearance, with England climbing one spot as a result.
The second semi-final did not result in a positional change, but New Zealand have improved their rating by seven-tenths following a commanding 20-6 victory over Australia which set up a repeat of the inaugural Rugby World Cup Final in 1987 against France.
New Zealand, who would have surrendered top spot with defeat, now have a cushion of 4.85 rating points over Australia at the top of the rankings. Australia were never in danger of losing second spot, even with defeat, and still remain 1.7 points above France.
IRB World Rankings – 17 October 2011
Position (last week)
1(1) NEW ZEALAND 91.34
2(2) AUSTRALIA 86.49
3(5) FRANCE 84.79
4(3) SOUTH AFRICA 84.34
5(6) ENGLAND 81.58
6(4) WALES 81.10
7(7) IRELAND 80.65
8(8) ARGENTINA 80.28
9(9) TONGA 76.63
10(10) SCOTLAND 76.20
11(11) SAMOA 75.81
12(12) ITALY 73.99
13(13) CANADA 72.92
14(14) GEORGIA 71.09
15(15)JAPAN 70.45
16(16) FIJI 68.78
17(17) USA 65.63
18(18) ROMANIA 63.98
19(19) NNAMIBIA 61.24
20(20) PORTUGAL 60.67
Travesty…..France is not that good. Unless all countries play a round robin of tests this system will always be flawed, Tri-Nations….now 4 Nations is of a higher standard than 6 Nations rugby.