THE International Rugby Board has confirmed that southern hemisphere sides have secured the top four positions in today’s pool draw for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

For the first time, the IRB is using its own world rankings to seed leading nations for the World Cup, which takes place in New Zealand. The cut-off point for today’s draw was the ranks the teams occupied yesterday , after Saturday’s Tests between England, and New Zealand and Wales and Australia. New Zealand’s 32-6 win over England at Twickenham, which sealed a grand slam of victories over the four home unions, cemented their grip on first place. By contrast, England’s defeat ensured that Argentina remained among the top four teams. The Pumas, who finished third at the 2007 World Cup, will therefore avoid New Zealand, defending champions South Africa and Australia in the draw for the first-round. England’s defeat dropped them to sixth whereas Six Nations champions Wales moved up to fifth after their 21-18 win over Australia at Cardiff’s Millennium stadium.

As was the case during last year’s World Cup, in France, there will be four pools of five teams in the 2011 tournament. Wales, England, France and Ireland face being drawn with one of the leading quartet. Scotland’s proud record of having got to the quarterfinals of every World Cup could be in danger because they are in the third band of teams. That means that they will be drawn in a pool with both a leading southern hemisphere side and one of their major European rivals. Today’s draw takes place in London at 5pm (SA time).

Julian Guyer, Sapa-AFP

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