Three back-to-back wins in their home leg of the Tri-Nations - two of them over the All Blacks - has seen South Africa's rating points increase to 91.19 points, an improvement of 1.74 since the competition began.
New Zealand's total has fallen by 1.26 rating points on the back of the two losses to the Springboks, 28-19 in Bloemfontein and then 31-19 in Durban. However, they still sit 3.57 points above Australia ahead of their match in Sydney on 22 August.
The Wallabies lost two tenths with defeat to South Africa in Cape Town, but even with a loss which saw captain Stirling Mortlock limp off injured, they remain 2.54 points above the leading northern hemisphere side Ireland in fourth.
IRB Top 20 world rankings
1 South Africa 91.19
2 New Zealand 89.42
3 Australia 85.85
4 Ireland 83.27
5 France 81.48
6 Argentina 81.29
7 England 81.23
8 Wales 80.74
9 Fiji 76.52
10 Scotland 75.23
11 Samoa 73.48
12 Italy 71.23
13 Canada 70.07
14 Japan 68.37
15 Tonga 67.53
16 Russia 67.17
17 Georgia 66.85
18 United States 65.97
19 Romania 64.85
20 Portugal 62.16
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