World Rugby announce final world rankings of the season as series to decide everything
After a brutal run of 18 Test match defeats, which stretched all the way back to the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, Welsh fans were finally able to celebrate a victory earlier this month as Matt Sherratt's side overcame Japan in the second of two showdowns with Eddie Jones' men on tour.
That win not only got a sizeable monkey off the backs of all those involved with the national side, but also ensured that Wales moved back up the global rankings, having dropped to a humiliating record low of 14th in the world following their opening tour defeat to Japan, who leapfrogged Sherratt's side alongside Samoa.
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The slip also meant that Wales briefly dropped into the third banding of seeds for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia, the draw for which will be conducted in December this year. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
The tournament in two years' time has been expanded to include 24 teams, with all of the qualified teams to be confirmed before the draw takes place.
All of the qualified teams will be seeded based on their rankings at the end of this year's decisive autumn series, and with the competition comprising six pools of four teams, the seeding bands are broken down by every six teams.
That means the top six teams in the world would be top seeds for the tournament, with those between 7th and 12th in the second banding of seeds and so on.
Wales being outside of the global top 12 by the end of the autumn would likely prove disastrous, therefore, as they would be set to drawn in a 'pool of death' for the 2027 tournament with two of the world's top teams.
The win over Japan, however, means that they head into their autumn international campaign in 12th place, just 0.64 ranking points behind Georgia and 1.57 ahead of Samoa.
Wales could have dropped to 13th place had the Samoans recorded a shock victory over Scotland last weekend, but Gregor Townsend's side eased to a 12-41 win as they bounced back from their painful defeat to Fiji.
A tough run of games now awaits Wales in the autumn, with three of the world's top seven sides - Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa - all heading to Cardiff, while a third clash with Japan is also part of the schedule.
While it will depend on results elsewhere, a single win in the autumn could well be enough for Wales to remain in the world's top 12 teams and head into the next Rugby World Cup in the second banding of seeds.
Elsewhere in the new world rankings, New Zealand have moved within 0.72 ranking points of top spot, with their 29-19 win over France seeing them edge closer to the number one spot currently occupied by South Africa.
Defeat to the All Blacks has seen the French fall away from the global top three and closer to fifth-placed England, who now trail them by just 0.18 ranking points, while Scotland remain in eighth but move closer to Argentina in seventh after beating Samoa.
Spain and Chile have also had ranking point boosts but the only positional changes come further down the table, with Zimbabwe moving ahead of Canada after qualifying for their first Rugby World Cup since 1991, and the Netherlands leapfrogging Namibia.
The latest World Rugby rankings (July 21)
1South Africa
92.782New Zealand
92.06
(+0.34)
3Ireland
89.834France
87.82
(-0.34)
5England
87.646Australia
82.087Argentina
82.058Scotland
81.57
(+0.20)
9Fiji
80.5010Italy
77.7711Georgia
74.6912Wales
74.0513Samoa
72.48
(-0.20)
14Japan
72.2915Spain
69.12
(+0.20)
16USA
68.4517Uruguay
67.5218Portugal
66.4419Tonga
65.4620Chile
63.83
(+0.63)
21Romania
62.6722Belgium
61.2023Hong Kong China
59.9824
(↑26)
Zimbabwe
58.80
(+1.01)
25
(↓24)
Canada
57.75
(-0.20)
26
(↑27)
Netherlands
57.0127
(↓25)
Namibia
56.86
(-1.01)
28Brazil
55.90
(-0.63)
29Switzerland
55.2630Poland
54.06
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