Banding for the 2011 draw later today

England drop behind Wales in the rankings for the new seeding process, following the games over the weekend. Follows the top three bands for the Rugby World Cup 2011 Pool Allocation Draw, based on the IRB World Rankings as of 30 November.

For the first time the IRB World Rankings will be used to seed the 12 pre-qualified teams from RWC 2007 into bands for the draw, which takes place in London at 15:00 on Monday 1 December. As in RWC 2007, there will be four pools of five teams in RWC 2011.

The teams in the top three bands are as follows:

Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina
Band 2: Wales, England, France, Ireland
Band 3: Scotland, Fiji, Italy, Tonga

The final two positions in each pool will be allocated to the eight qualifying places still available for RWC 2011. The banding of these eight teams is as follows:

Band 4: Americas 1, Europe 1, Europe 2, Oceania 1
Band 5: Africa 1, Americas 2, Asia 1, Play Off place

The teams in each band will be drawn randomly into one of the four pools.

The Draw will be streamed live from 15:00 UK time on Monday 1 December on www.rugbyworldcup.com

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