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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Andy Howell

How the world rugby rankings now look as Wales stay top after England humiliate Ireland

Wales have held on to top spot in the World Rugby rankings following Ireland's 57-15 thrashing to England at Twickenham.

Six Nations champions Wales had seized official No.1 status for the first time in history after grinding out a 13-6 triumph over England at the Principality Stadium last weekend.

That gritty effort saw New Zealand overtaken at the head of the standings after 10 years. You can read how it happened here.

Despite the All Blacks bouncing back to defeat Australia 36-0 in Auckland a week after they lost by a record 47-26 in Perth, Wales climbed to the top spot due to the fact they picked up more ranking points for beating an England team ranked higher than Australia.

Eddie Jones' men were not be able to go above Wales, or New Zealand, but they do jump ahead of South Africa and Ireland into third, courtesy of the margin of victory.

It means the gap between England and top-ranked Wales is now just 1.30 points.

Wales and Ireland play each other in back to back fixtures, on Saturday, August 31, in Cardiff and on September 7 in Dublin.

And the results of those matches could yet determine who arrives at the Rugby World Cup as the planet's top-ranked team.

Wales' number one position will be on the line again in Cardiff when they face Joe Schmidt's men. A defeat by 15 points or less would actually now see them drop to fourth in the rankings and New Zealand return to the top.

How the world rugby rankings will look on Monday morning

1. WALES: 89.43

2. NEW ZEALAND: 89.40

3. ENGLAND: 88.13

4. IRELAND: 87.36

5. SOUTH AFRICA: 86.83

6. AUSTRALIA: 84.05

7. SCOTLAND:  79.87

8. FRANCE: 79.72

9. JAPAN: 77.21

10. FIJI: 76.98

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