The Tongan rugby league team have jumped from 11th to fourth in the world rankings after their stellar run in the recent World Cup.
The Tongan rugby league team Photo: NRL Photos
Tonga reached the semi-finals, going down to runners up England.
World champions Australia remain the top side while New Zealand is second and England third.
Lebanon are up to ninth from 18th and Papua New Guinea have risen six places to 10th after both sides made the last eight.
Scotland have slipped to seventh after failing to win a game Down Under and fellow home nations Ireland and Wales have both dropped out of the top 10.
Rugby League International Federation chief executive David Collier said: "On behalf of the RLIF board I would like to congratulate Australia on retaining their position and the other major movers, in particular Lebanon, Fiji, PNG and Tonga, who all lit up the World Cup.
"What we have seen is that the success of the World Cup has reinvigorated the international game, even more fixtures are being arranged across the tiers and that will have a reflection in future rankings as past results gradually degrade."
Tonga head coach Kristian Woolf, who oversaw a thrilling victory over New Zealand and a narrow defeat to England, does not want to have to wait until the 2021 World Cup to face the top sides again.
"The Mate Ma'a's move is just reward for a very strong year including a great World Cup campaign," he said.
"It is something we want to continue, with the opportunity to be involved in more international games in the future and the ability to compete against the top three nations."
Leading rankings: 1 Australia, 2 New Zealand, 3 England, 4 Tonga, 5 Fiji, 6 Samoa, 7 Scotland, 8 France, 9 Lebanon, 10 Papua New Guinea.
-RNZ/AAP
