Wales rise to top position in World Rugby Rankings

Wales have claimed the top position in the World Rugby Rankings for the first time since the system was introduced since 2003.

Their rise to the pole position came following their 13-6 win over England at Principality Stadium last weekend where George North scored the game's only try to continue their impressive run this year.

The weekend's result also ended New Zealand's domination in the table where they held the top position for 509 consecutive weeks despite blanking Australia 36-0 to retain the Bledisloe Cup for the 17th consecutive year.

New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen said he was puzzled by the ranking system as they were displaced at the top despite a convincing win over Australia in Auckland.

"How do you work that out?" said Hansen. "We won the (Bledisloe) Cup last night and lost the rankings. Ask yourself how that works.

"I've never understood their system. You win a game and you lose the top ranking?

"When you sit back, it's something that's going to happen anyway - the top-ranked sides are playing each other in the northern hemisphere, and you get more points if you beat top sides.

"We just need to get ourselves in the right frame of mind to go to the World Cup and win that. I'm not too worried about rankings."

Wales now have 89.43 rating points at the top closely followed by the All Blacks with 89.40 points with Ireland at third at 88.69 rating points.

There was also an improvement for South Africa as they swapped places with England at fourth position following their 24-18 win over Argentina while France's 32-3 thrashing over Scotland saw them climb to the seventh place with 80.58 rating points.

World Rugby Top 10 Rankings:

Rank	Team	Rating Points
1	Wales	89.43
2	New Zealand	89.40
3	Ireland	88.69
4	South Africa	86.83
5	England	86.79
6	Australia	84.05
7	France	80.58
8	Scotland	79.01
9	Japan	77.21
10	Fiji	76.98