England are a distant third in the revamped world rankings issued on Friday by the Rugby League International Federation.
McNamara's men trail big two in revamped world rankings
England are a distant third in the revamped world rankings issued on Friday by the Rugby League International Federation.
Australia head the 28-nation standings going into their fixture with New Zealand, the World Cup and Four Nations champions, in Newcastle on Sunday week.
France remain in fifth, two places ahead of Wales despite losing to them in the European Cup in 2010.
The re-vamped rankings are calculated over a five-year period using a new, more accurate formula, including the weighting of games, and the live system will be updated monthly.
RLIF chairman Scott Carter said: "From today we can accurately reflect the relative position of each of the growing number of international rugby league nations based upon their on-field performance."
Leading rankings:
1 Australia (1,244.77pts), 2 New Zealand (1,062.30), 3 England (682.19), 4 Papua New Guinea (341.29), 5 France (250.03), 6 Samoa (159.50), 7 Wales (149.17), 8 Fiji (145.85), 9 Tonga (129.01), 10 Scotland (91.01), 11 Ireland (72.81), 12 Cook Islands (62.11).
