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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Katie Sands

The new world rugby rankings table as Wales, Ireland, New Zealand and rest given Rugby World Cup placings

Ireland have climbed to the top of the world rugby rankings for the first time in history, while Wales now head to the Rugby World Cup ranked fifth in the world.

Both sides played out their final Rugby World Cup warm-up at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, ending 19-10.

And we now know how the world rugby rankings will look for the start of the global tournament in Japan later this month.

After knocking New Zealand off the top spot against England last month, Warren Gatland's went into the Dublin test in the knowledge that any defeat would see them drop places in the world rankings.

With South Africa - who were ranked fifth - having beat Japan by more than 15 points on Friday, a defeat to the Irish has now seen Wales swap with the Springboks and sit in fifth place in the table.

A hard-fought Irish win has seen Joe Schmidt's men climb to the top of the table for the first time in their history, knocking the All Blacks down to second spot - despite the All Blacks annihilating Tonga 92-7 this weekend in a match where they chose to play with just 14 men in the final quarter.

A draw for Wales would have seen them climb from fourth to third, a win by less than 15 points would have seen them climb to second, while a Wales win by more than 15 points would have seen them reclaim the top spot.

The new rankings shift comes after England, New Zealand and Australia all won their fixtures by a margin of more than 15 points against Italy, Tonga and Samoa respectively.

How the world rugby rankings will look on Monday (updated at midday)

1. Ireland (89.47 points)

2. New Zealand (89.40)

3. England (88.13)

4. South Africa (87.34)

5. Wales (87.32)

6. Australia (84.05)

7. Scotland (81.00)

8. France (79.72)

9. Fiji (77.43)

10. Japan (76.70)

11. Argentina (76.29)

12. Georgia (73.29)

13. USA (72.18)

14. Italy (72.04)

15. Tonga (71.04)

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