The new World Rankings, issued by the Rugby League International Federation, have set up the 2016 international season perfectly.
The Four Nations tournament, to be played in the UK next autumn, will offer England, Australia and New Zealand the opportunity of going in to the 2017 World Cup as the number one ranked nation, a position currently held by the Kiwis.
Among the big movers are two nations who will compete in the 2016 World Cup Qualifiers – Europe; Spain who go up five places to 21 and the winners of European Championship B in 2015, Serbia, who now sit just outside the top ten.
"Serbia's end of the year ranking tells a story of the seasons behind us," said SRL vice-president Nebojša Sretenović. "Our squads in 2015 have been almost exclusively drawn from our domestic competition and I congratulate our players and the coaching staff for their results against countries that played in the last World Cup.
"The ranking gives us much motivation going into next year which will be our most important to date."
Wales move up one place after winning the 2015 European Championship, as do Ireland, while Scandinavian nations Sweden and Denmark both move up two places.
Jamaica also go up two places to 27th after excellent performances in the recent World Cup Qualifiers – Americas, when they narrowly lost to the USA and drew with Canada, who are much higher ranked. The USA stay in 10th place after their recent qualification for RLWC2017.
"We are happy with our performances against the world number 10 and 13 ranked teams in the qualifiers," said JRL director of rugby Romeo Monteith. "We need an America's cup to move the sport forward in our region and all the nations, along with the RLIF, are working hard to provide a clear international calendar here."
The other big movers in the rankings are Malta, who also move up five places.
Full Rankings below and to keep up to date with the 2017 world cup visit www.rlwc2017.com
1 (1) New Zealand
2 (2) Australia
3 (3) England
4 (4) Samoa
5 (5) France
6 (7) Ireland
7 (6) Fiji
8 (9) Wales
9 (8) Scotland
10 (10) USA
11 (14) Serbia
12 (12) Italy
13 (13) Canada
14 (11) PNG
15 (16) Russia
16 (15) Tonga
17 (18) Belgium
18 (23) Malta
19 (19) Germany
20 (20) Lebanon
21 (26) Spain
22 (17) Cook Islands
23 (22) Ukraine
24 (24) Greece
25 (27) Denmark
26 (21) Norway
27 (29) Jamaica
28 (25) Netherlands
29 (31) Sweden
30 (30) Czech Republic
31 (28) South Africa
32 (32) Niue
33 (33) Hungary
34 (34) Latvia
35 (35) Morocco
