France rise, Argentina fall

France have climbed two places to seventh in the World Rugby rankings following their convincing 27-0 victory over Argentina, who drop to ninth.

The top four – New Zealand, England, South Africa and Australia – are unchanged, but there has been a shake-up in terms of rating points among them.

The All Blacks did not pick up any points for completing a 3-0 series whitewash against Wales because they were ranked so high above their opponents.

But England's 44-40 win over the Wallabies saw them trim the All Blacks' lead at the top by 0.99 as Eddie Jones's side go from 88.50 to 89.49 rankings points.

The Springboks remain third, but their 19-13 win against Ireland earned them a 0.29 point increase. The fourth-ranked Wallabies have lost ground on the top three after suffering a third straight defeat to England. Their points tally shrunk by a full point.

The big winners this week are France, who jumped from ninth to seventh after overcoming Argentina in Tucumán. The heavy loss relegated Argentina from fifth to ninth, which is their lowest position in the past 16 months.

Argentina's decline benefits Wales and Ireland, who rose one place each to sixth and seventh place respectively.

World Rugby rankings (Top 20)

1. New Zealand 96.10

2. England 89.49

3. South Africa 86.32

4. Australia 84.43

5. Wales 82.49

6. Ireland 81.67

7. France 80.75

8. Scotland 80.44

9. Argentina 80.20

10. Fiji 75.49

11. Georgia 75.23

12. Japan 74.95

13. Italy 72.23

14. Samoa 71.37

15. Tonga 69.47

Full rankings

How the rankings work

Photo: Juan Mabromata/Getty Images

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