Wallabies start to slide

Australia have paid the price for the 29-47 loss to New Zealand in the Rugby Championship 2013 opener in Sydney.

They dropped one place in the latest IRB World Rankings, allowing England to break the Southern Hemisphere dominance of the top three.

The Wallabies could have climbed to second had they beaten New Zealand in Sydney, but the margin of defeat in Ewen McKenzie's first game in charge sees them fall below England by just over three tenths of a rating point.

With South Africa unable to improve their rating despite overwhelming Argentina 73-13 in Soweto, New Zealand's cushion at the top - a position they have occupied since 16 November 2009 - has grown to 4.52 rating points.

South Africa went into the match in Soweto sitting eight places and 10.36 rating points above Los Pumas, which meant that regardless of the margin of victory it would not have any impact on their rating in second place.

The only other change in the latest IRB World Rankings sees Canada climb one place to 14th - swapping place with Japan - after their 27-9 victory over USA in the first leg of the Rugby World Cup 2015 qualifier to determine the Americas 1 side at England 2015.

Canada now lie just under a point behind Fiji above them going into the second leg in Toronto this weekend, while despite the heavy loss on home soil, the USA Eagles remain 18th and still have a cushion of nearly three points over Russia below.

Top 20 in the IRB World Rankings

(Last week's ranking in brackets)

1(1) New Zealand 91.55

2(2) South Africa 87.03

3(4) England 85.76

4(3) Australia 85.41

5(5) France 81.59

6(6) Wales 81.36

7(7) Samoa 80.42

8(8) Ireland 79.58

9(9) Scotland 76.95

10(10) Argentina 76.67

11(11) Tonga 74.77

12(12) Italy 74.17

13(13) Fiji 73.56

14(15) Canada 72.68

15(14) Japan 71.98

16(16) Georgia 67.66

17(17) Romania 66.18

18(18) United States 64.91

19(19) Russia 61.99

20(20) Spain 60.44