The Wallabies have jumped back into second spot in the world standings after Saturday’s convincing win over the Springboks.
The Aussies had slipped below their South African counterparts following the unexpected loss to Samoa just six days earlier.
But the 39-20 victory over the world champions in Sydney has seen the Wallabies and Boks trade places once again.
Robbie Deans’ men are now 0.41 points above Peter de Villiers’ team, although they are 0.8 points below their pre-Samoa mark.
And while the Wallabies still face a massive task to overhaul the All Blacks as the world’s number-one ranked nation, they are comfortably above all four Home Unions in the International Rugby Board’s standings.
Ireland are currently the best-placed home nation, with Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell and co just under three points below the Springboks in fourth spot.
England are hot on Ireland’s tails in fifth, though, with just three hundreds of a point separating the RBS Six Nations Champions from their Dublin conquerors.
Wales are ranked seventh by the IRB, with Scotland in ninth.
And with less than two years to go until the Lions head to Australia in 2013, it would clearly take a massive change in fortunes for any of the four Lions contributors to leapfrog the Wallabies in time for that tour.
IRB World Rankings
1 New Zealand 93.19
2 Australia 86.65
3 South Africa 85.24
4 Ireland 82.51
5 England 82.48
6 France 82.06
7 Wales 79.55
8 Argentina 78.97
9 Scotland 77.35
10 Samoa 74.55
11 Italy 73.54
12 Japan 72.56
13 Tonga 71.80
14 Fiji 71.52
15 Georgia 70.30
16 Canada 69.78
17 USA 66.78
18 Romania 65.57
19 Russia 61.93
20 Namibia 61.43
