World rankings: Close call as Boks finish year in fourth

The Springboks missed out on overtaking the All Blacks by a fraction as they finished the year in fourth place on the World Rugby rankings.

The Boks needed to beat England by more than 15 points in their encounter at Twickenham to replace the All Blacks in third position.

They delivered a dominant performance and looked set to achieve that goal despite a red card to replacement prop Thomas du Toit midway through the second half.

The Boks held a 27-13 lead in the closing stages of the game and had an opportunity to kick for posts and get the required margin, but turned the penalty shot down and went for the corner instead.

It means South Africa end the Autumn Nations Series one place below where they started it, but their overall rating is only three-hundredths of a point down from what it was when they began their end-of-year tour.

England have remained a consistent fifth throughout but the gap between themselves and the Boks has grown to a sizeable 5.31 points.

Elsewhere, the Wallabies climbed above Scotland and Argentina following their come-from-behind victory over Wales in Cardiff.

Wales had a chance to bounce back from their historic loss to Georgia the previous Saturday as an under-strength Wallabies outfit visited Cardiff in the final round of this year's Autumn Nations Series.A Wales triumph would have lifted them above the Wallabies in the rankings and into eighth as well as relieving a lot of the pressure on head coach Wayne Pivac and his charges ahead of a Rugby World Cup year.

Wales were on their way to victory as they held a 34-13 lead by the 53rd minute but a yellow card to skipper Justin Tipuric proved to be a game-changing moment and the motivation for Australia to launch a spectacular fightback.

Wallabies wing Mark Nawaqanitawase crossed for a brace of tries â- his first in Test rugby â- before replacement hooker Lachlan Lonergan clinched the visitors' win with a try in the game's dying moments.

After starting their Autumn Nations Series campaign in ninth position in the rankings, Australia finished what has been a rollercoaster year in sixth place.

The 1.36 rating points they received for the victory over Wales was enough to move them above both the Scots and Pumas and boosted their overall score to 81.80 points â- 1.15 more than five weeks ago.

Wales are still in ninth place but they are now only a fraction over two points away from falling outside of the world's top 10 for the first time in history.

Latest World Rugby rankings

1 (1) Ireland 90.632 (2) France 90.013 (3) New Zealand 88.984 (4) South Africa 88.975 (5) England 83.666 (8) Australia 81.807 (6) Scotland 81.558 (7) Argentina 80.729 (9) Wales 78.0910 (10) Japan 77.39