Wales have slipped two places in the latest World Rugby rankings table after Saturday's crushing 55-23 defeat to New Zealand.
Wayne Pivac's side now sit in ninth position, below Argentina and Scotland and outside the top two tiers if World Cup seedings were being done now.
Fortunately for Wales, seedings for next year's tournament were actually done based on January 2020's rankings because of the Covid pandemic, meaning Wales, who were fourth at the time, are among the top seeds. Wales had briefly been ranked number one in the world in the summer of 2019.
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Ireland remain the official best team on the planet after beating South Africa 19-16 in Dublin, France are still second after a dramatic late 30-29 win over Australia and New Zealand moved above South Africa into third. England are fifth, Argentina are sixth after their shock 30-29 win at Twickenham, while the Wallabies are seventh and Scotland, who beat Fiji 28-12 on Saturday, are eighth.
Further down the rankings, Italy climbed two places, from 14th to 12th after a comprehensive 49-17 win over Samoa that saw their opponents drop from 11th to 14th.
There is set to be further movement to the table next weekend when the next round of autumn internationals are held. Wales host Argentina, France play South Africa, Ireland take on Fiji, England go up against Japan and Italy face Australia. An All Blacks XV will also play the Barbarians in a non-capped game. on Sunday, with the Baa Baas squad including two Wales internationals.
New World Rugby rankings table
| 1 | |
Ireland | 90.63 | (+0.60) |
| 2 | |
France | 89.41 | |
| 3 | (↑4) | New Zealand | 88.64 | (+1.00) |
| 4 | (↓3) | South Africa | 88.41 | (-0.60) |
| 5 | |
England | 84.45 | (-1.80) |
| 6 | (↑8) | Argentina | 83.01 | (+1.80) |
| 7 | (↓6) | Australia | 82.08 | |
| 8 | (↑9) | Scotland | 80.74 | (+0.24) |
| 9 | (↓7) | Wales | 80.28 | (-1.00) |
| 10 | |
Japan | 77.39 | |
| 11 | (↑12) | Fiji | 74.84 | (-0.24) |
| 12 | (↑14) | Italy | 74.71 | (+1.42) |
| 13 | |
Georgia | 74.51 | |
| 14 | (↓11) | Samoa | 74.33 | (-1.42) |
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