Cape Town - Ireland have replaced Australia in third place in the World Rugby rankings thanks to the Wallabies’ heavy defeat at the hands of Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.

According to World Rugby's website, the 53-24 scoreline resulted in a loss of 1.8 rating points for Michael Cheika’s side, to leave them on 85.49 points - nine-tenths less than Ireland whose total stays at 86.39 after a 28-19 home win over Argentina.

New Zealand’s 33-18 win over Wales in Cardiff sees them preserve their 3.12-point advantage over England at the top of the rankings heading into 2018. The All Blacks are unchanged on 93.99 points, while England stay on 90.87 points as no points were on offer for their 48-14 victory against Samoa because of the points difference between the two.

Scotland countered the loss of star fullback Stuart Hogg in the warm-up to rack up a record score against the Wallabies, Byron McGuigan making the most of his late promotion to the starting XV with a brace of tries.

The result did not affect their rankings position, however, as the Springboks’ 35-6 win over Italy in Padova meant they kept hold of fifth. The gap between the two is now only 0.79 of a point though.