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(IRB.COM) Monday 28 June 2010
Argentina recorded their biggest ever victory over France at the Velez Sarsfield Stadium and, as a result, climbed one place above Wales to eighth in the IRB World Rankings.
Felipe Contepomi scored 31 points as the hosts put their two defeats versus Scotland behind them and beat third-ranked France 41-13 to gain 2.16 rating points.
France's defeat and Australia's 22-15 victory over Ireland at the Suncorp Stadium meant the two sides swapped places for the second successive week, with Australia returning to third having gained .58 rating points.
New Zealand and South Africa remained first and second in the IRB World Rankings with 29-10 and 55-11 victories over Wales and Italy respectively.
New Zealand scored two tries through Cory Jane and Aaron Cruden, and Dan Carter scored 17 points (five penalties and one conversion) at the Waikato Stadium, whilst Morne Steyn scored two of South Africa's seven tries against Italy at the Boland Rugby Union Ground.
Wales' defeat means they drop to ninth place, their lowest position since February 2008, whilst Italy remain 11th.
The only other matches affecting the IRB World Rankings this week were the final two matches at the ANZ Pacific Nations Cup matches in Apia.
Samoa won their third and final match of the tournament against Fiji in a dramatic finale at Apia Park to claim their first PNC title and climb one place to 12th.
Sevens star Alafoti Fa'osiliva came off the bench in the second half and scored two tries in three minutes to secure the try scoring bonus point Samoa required to clinch the title ahead of Fiji.
By defeating Fiji, ranked three places above them in 10th, Samoa gained 1.85 rating points and reclaimed the 12th spot they had lost after last week's defeat to Japan, despite Japan's victory over Tonga in the penultimate PNC match.
Japan scored a dramatic last minute penalty try against 16th placed Tonga and gained .57 rating points, but still dropped to 13th because Samoa gained more points. Tonga remain 16th, but sit just .68 rating points above 17th placed Georgia.
Samoa's victory closed the gap on Italy in 11th to just .23 rating points and you can watch highlights and full match replays of both the final two PNC matches live and on-demand on the IRB website.
IRB World Rankings - 28 June 2010
Position (last week) Member Union Rating Point
1(1) NEW ZEALAND 91.68
2(2) SOUTH AFRICA 89.46
3(4) AUSTRALIA 84.41
4(3) FRANCE 82.75
5(5) IRELAND 82.03
6(6) ENGLAND 81.82
7(7) SCOTLAND 79.81
8(9) ARGENTINA 79.70
9(8) WALES 78.58
10(10) FIJI 74.39
11(11) ITALY 72.97
12(13) SAMOA 72.74
13(12) JAPAN 72.49
14(14) CANADA 69.43
15(15) USA 67.86
16(16) TONGA 67.06
17(17) GEORGIA 66.38
18(18) RUSSIA 65.80
19(19) ROMANIA 65.10
20(20) NAMIBIA 62.69
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