Ireland remain in the top four of the World Rugby rankings despite falling to a shock defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield at the weekend.
However Joe Schmidt's side dropped a full ranking point and now only hold a narrow advantage over 5th place Wales.
New Zealand are still top and by quite some margin with England, who are currently on a 15 match winning streak, in second. Australia strengthened their grip on third spot due to Ireland's loss.
Wales, South Africa, Scotland and France make up the positions from five to eight. Argentina lurk in ninth position but will need one of the team's directly above them to suffer a loss to Italy if they are to have any hope of breaking into the top eight.
The video review wasn't pretty - @henshawrob #TeamOfUs #shouldertoshoulder pic.twitter.com/WeiuQHmlJJ
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) February 6, 2017
The draw for the pool stages of the 2019 World Cup is due to take place this May in Japan and remaining within the top four teams until then would be a huge achievement for Ireland and would significantly aid Ireland's prospects of getting past the quarter-final stage for the first time.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
