Malta maintained its international ranking of 20th when the RLIF rankings were released on Sunday.

Australia head the rankings with New Zealand and England in pursuit, Papua New Guinea and France round off the top five.

Despite dropping 0.2176 points, the Malta national team crept closer to its 19th placed counterpart in Norway who it has defeated for the last two consecutive seasons.

Canada, who recently defeated 22nd ranked Jamaica climbed to 21st, and within 0.7815 points of Malta.

Malta takes on the 27th ranked Denmark on September 29 in Copenhagen in the final leg of the 2012 Dove Men+Care International Series. Malta’s ranking in Europe is 12th of 21 nations.

RLIF Rankings: 1/ Australia, 2/ New Zealand, 3/ England, 4/ PNG, 5/ France, 6/ Wales, 7/ Fiji, 8/ Samoa, 9/ Tonga, 10/ Scotland, 20/ Malta