Wales have risen up the World Rugby rankings for the first time in months after their win over Italy in the Six Nations.
Warren Gatland's side had dropped to their joint lowest ever ranking of 10th in the world after being beaten at home by England and would have been consigned to their outright worst ever position if they had lost in Rome. Defeat there would have seen them drop to at least 11th while they would have fallen to a catastrophic 13th place, below Samoa and Georgia, if they had lost by more than 15 points.
However, a 29-17 bonus point victory aided by tries from Rio Dyer, Liam Williams and Taulupe Faletau sees them move back up to ninth, with Gatland's men the only movers in the latest rankings.
The move also means that Wales will finish the Six Nations inside the top 10, with Japan, Samoa and Georgia all unable to overtake them by the end of the championship, regardless of the result against France on Super Saturday. In fact, it could get even better as an unprecedented victory over Les Bleus would see Wales leapfrog Argentina and move up to eighth place, so long as they win by a margin of 16 or more points.
At the top of the rankings, France could clinch the Six Nations title and become the world's number one side with a win in Paris this weekend, if Ireland also fall at the final hurdle in their Grand Slam bid and lose against England. The French have closed the gap on Andy Farrell's side in the latest standings thanks to their staggering 53-10 victory at Twickenham on Saturday with everything to play for in the final round.
Despite that thrashing, England remain in sixth place and will overtake Scotland in fifth if they pull off an unlikely win against Ireland, while the Scots could drop to seventh, below Australia, if they fail to beat Italy. The gap between the best four teams in the world and the rest is now huge.
The Italians have their own problems, with their loss to Wales causing them to drop one place to 14th position, below Fiji. A defeat to Scotland on Super Saturday would consign them to another Six Nations whitewash and see them stay in 14th place, although they will move back up one spot if Portugal beat Georgia in this weekend's Rugby Europe Championship final. An Italian win at Murrayfield, however, could move them back up to 11th place.
The new World Rugby rankings table
| 1 | Ireland | 91.82 | (+0.49) | |
| 2 | France | 90.47 | (+1.00) | |
| 3 | New Zealand | 88.98 | ||
| 4 | South Africa | 88.97 | ||
| 5 | Scotland | 82.77 | (-0.49) | |
| 6 | England | 82.12 | (-1.00) | |
| 7 | Australia | 81.80 | ||
| 8 | Argentina | 80.72 | ||
| 9 | (↑10) | Wales | 78.08 | (+1.19) |
| 10 | (↓9) | Japan | 77.39 | |
| 11 | Samoa | 76.03 | ||
| 12 | Georgia | 75.94 | ||
| 13 | (↑14) | Fiji | 74.84 | |
| 14 | (↓13) | Italy | 74.63 | (-1.19) |
| 15 | Tonga | 71.21 | ||
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