Top four decided

Following the conclusion of the six matches involving the 12 seeded teams for the RWC 2015 pool allocation draw, the top four seeds for the draw will be confirmed as New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and France, when the latest IRB World Rankings are published on Monday, November 26.

The ratings gap between the top four teams in the rankings and the rest on Monday will be too high for results of the two matches on December 1 (England v New Zealand and Wales v Australia) to affect their position as a top seed for the RWC 2015 draw.

The IRB World Rankings are being used to rank the 12 directly qualified teams for RWC 2015 into three bands for the draw with the sides ranked one to four in band one – and crucially avoiding each other until the knockout stages – those five to eight in band two and the remaining four in band three.

England and Ireland will be confirmed as being in the second band of seeds for the RWC 2015 pool allocation draw (fifth to eighth in the IRB World Rankings) when the rankings are announced.

If Wales avoid defeat against Australia, Wales and Samoa will take the other two spots in this second band, with Argentina in the third band. However, if Australia defeat Wales, then Samoa and Argentina will fill these two spots in the second band, with Wales joining Italy, Tonga and Scotland in the third band of seeds for the RWC 2015 pool allocation draw.

Provisional IRB World Rankings

1 New Zealand – 92.91

2 South Africa – 86.94

3 Australia – 86.31

4 France – 85.07

5 England – 81.07

6 Ireland – 80.22

7 Wales – 78.95

8 Samoa – 78.71 (78.709236088306938 To 15 Decimal Places)

9 Argentina – 78.71 (78.708853582562098 To 15 Decimal Places)

10 Italy – 76.24

11 Tonga – 76.10

12 Scotland – 75.83

* Official rankings will be published at 12 midday UK time on Monday, November 26.

The results from the six matches for the 12 seeded teams for RWC 2015 on 24 November were:

Ireland 46-24 Argentina

England 15-16 South Africa

Italy 19-22 Australia

Scotland 15-21 Tonga

France 22-14 Samoa

Wales 10-33 New Zealand