Australia remain top of RLIF rankings

Australia remain top of the RLIF world rankings, which were released on Monday.

The rankings include 28 playing nations covering five continents across the world. England remain in third position behind New Zealand.

However the rankings make interesting reading below the top three nations. Papua New Guinea are ranked fourth, closely followed by France and Wales. All three nations have been apart of the Four Nations since 2009.

Ireland have overtaken USA into 11th place and below this Russia and Serbia are now level on 43 points with Russia moving up from 17th to 16th place, overtaking the Serbs courtesy of their victory in the European Shield.

Germany move up one place from 19th to 18th thanks to their Shield campaign and Canada draw virtually level on points with Malta in 20th position.

The only nation to be included in the top 14 which are not competing in the Rugby League World Cup are Lebanon. They failed to qualify after losing out to Italy in a qualification group stage.

Cook Islands, who are competing in the World Cup, are three points behind them in 15th place.

The Rugby League World Cup begins on Saturday, October 26 2013.

Rugby League International Federation world rankings

Australia
New Zealand
England
PNG
France
Wales
Fiji
Samoa
Tonga
Scotland
Ireland
USA
Italy
Lebanon
Cook Islands
Russia
Serbia
Germany
Norway
Malta
Canada
Jamaica
Ukraine
South Africa
Czech Republic
Latvia
Denmark
Sweden