It seems England have to do more than beat the World Champions Australia and South Africa in the same month if they want to rule the wold.

For according to the latest official Zurich World Rankings, New Zealand are once again at the top of the tree.

Despite speculation that England would emerge as No1 after three Test wins in November, their Six Nations defeat against Ireland in October left them too much work to do to overhaul the All Blacks.

New Zealand, back at No1 for the first time since 2000, have not had an overly impressive end-of-year tour and only a last gasp try brought them victory over in Argentina at the weekend. But they have somehow still done enough to hold off a buoyant England who rise two places to their highest ever position since the rankings began.

With New Zealand now out of action until June 2002, should results go to form England are likely to move to No1 sometime during their Six Nations campaign in February and March.

Australia are one of the biggest fallers as Eddie Jones' men drop two places to third after a disappointing end-of-year tour.

The biggest improvement comes from Bernard Laporte's France who, despite a poor Six Nations, have come in to life in recent games. However, their gain of 68 rankings points is not enough to overtake a falling South Africa who occupy fourth spot.

Another side on the rise is Argentina who, despite their narrow loss to the All Blacks on Saturday, have reduced what was a sizeable gap between them and their recent Celtic victims, Wales and Scotland.

Eighth place Wales, who have endured another roller-coaster year, finish the year in the same position they started.

Official Zurich World Rankings (03/12/01)

(+1) 1. New Zealand 1198 (+8)
(+2) 2. England 1176 (+55)
(-2) 3. Australia 1148 (-63)
(-1) 4. South Africa 1092 (-31)
(-) 5. France 1051 (+68)
(-) 6. Ireland 849 (-7)
(+1) 7. Scotland 807 (-19)
(-1) 8. Wales 804 (-43)
(+1) 9. Argentina 701 (+59)
(-1) 10. Samoa 667 (-6)
(+1) 11. Italy 604 (+29)
(+1) 12. Canada 562
(-2) 13. Fiji 560 (-55)
(-) 14. Tonga 546 (-10)
(-) 15. Japan 453
(-) 16. USA 383 (-2)
(+1) 17. Georgia 349
(-1) 18. Romania 339 (-13)
(-) 19. Namibia 287
(-) 20. Uruguay 267
-----
(-) 23 Spain 228 (-1)