England have closed the gap on second placed South Africa after their 20-13 victory over Australia this past weekend.
With the victory over Australia, England managed to gain half a ranking point and is now 1.55 ranking points behind South Africa.
In a perfect world with all results going England’s way they will only be able to pass second placed South Africa by middle next year.
They do however have quite a big tour ahead of them, as they will be facing Argentina this coming weekend who are currently ranked 10th and then they face the All Blacks who are currently ranked 1st.
Due to the way the IRB rankings work, a victory over Argentina this weekend will deliver no ranking points for England.
If South Africa lose to Wales this weekend and again to Scotland the following weekend and England beat the All Blacks, then England could overtake South Africa and move into second place, this year.
The current IRB World Rankings are as follows:
- New Zealand – 93.05
- South Africa – 87.86
- England – 86.31
- Australia – 83.70
- France – 81.59
- Wales – 81.36
- Samoa – 80.42
- Ireland – 79.58
- Scotland – 76.95
- Argentina – 75.50
- Tonga – 74.77
- Italy – 74.17
- Fiji – 73.56
- Canada – 72.68
- Japan – 71.98
- Georgia – 67.66
- Romania – 66.18
- USA – 64.91
- Russia – 61.99
- Spain – 60.44