The customary time of the year when Southern Hemisphere International teams descend on the Northern Hemisphere is now upon us. We can look forward to four action packed weekends with twenty matches involving the various international teams (nineteen of which will be test matches).

 Fixtures List

None of the touring teams are on a Grand Slam tour this year.  However, this does not make this year’s tests any less important. There will be various reasons and incentives for each  team to go out and try and win each game but the main reason surely must be related to the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) world ranking.

The draw for the 2015 Rugby World Cup is set to take place on the 3^rd of December. The IRB world rankings will play a key role in the draw as the top four sides at that time will be kept apart in the pool stage.

The rankings are worked out in quite a complicated way and it is beyond the remit of this article to go into this.

The All Blacks are currently ranked number one and quite a long way ahead of the rest of the teams so it can be assumed with quite a lot of confidence that they should still be in top spot by the time the draw takes place.

The other three teams, currently in the top four, competing for the rest of the top four spots are less certain of keeping their places and could well concede their position in the top group of seeding for the draw to various teams currently in the second group of seeding (ie. Those in places five through eight)

Similarly, the teams outside the top eight will also be trying to break into the top eight and so try and ensure a less uncomfortable grouping for the pool stages on the World Cup.

IRB World Rankings on 5^th November

1(1)	NEW ZEALAND	92.91
2(2)	AUSTRALIA	86.37
3(3)	SOUTH AFRICA	84.69
4(4)	ENGLAND	83.09
5(5)	FRANCE	83.03
6(6)	WALES	82.26
7(7)	IRELAND	79.85
8(8)	ARGENTINA	78.63
9(9)	SCOTLAND	77.97
10(10)	SAMOA	76.23
11(11)	ITALY	76.03
12(12)	TONGA	74.79
13(13)	CANADA	72.30
14(14)	FIJI	70.60
15(15)	GEORGIA	67.95