Wales moved closer to returning to the top ten of the world rugby rankings after beating Fiji in Cardiff on Saturday.
Steve Tandy’s side, currently 11th, closed the gap on ninth-placed Fiji, while tenth-placed Italy also dropped points after losing to Japan in Tokyo. A 39–24 win over Fiji, classified as an away game despite being in Cardiff, saw Wales improve on their points by 1.31.
This brought Fiji a little closer, with the gap between the two countries now standing at 3.46 points.
The gap between Italy and Wales is even smaller, with Italy dropping 1.88 points after their defeat to the Brave Flowers. They lead Wales by just 1.39 points.
The downside is that Japan, after beating the Italians, is hot on the heels of 12th-place Wales, just 0.40 points behind.
Wales fell out of the top 10 rankings for the first time in July 2024 – in the early stages of an 18-Test losing streak.
They haven’t troubled the top 10 since then, dropping to 14th last summer.
However, having now won a game in each of the last four campaigns, Steve Tandy appears to be turning things around after Warren Gatland’s disastrous second spell.
Elsewhere, Scotland moved up to their record fifth place in the world, overtaking England, after beating Argentina.
The last time Gregor Townsend’s team finished fifth was during the 2023 World Cup.
England remain sixth without dropping a single point after losing to South Africa in Johannesburg.
Argentina dropped two places to seventh ahead of Saturday’s match with Wales in San Juan.
There were no other changes to the top 10, although New Zealand cut South Africa’s lead at the top to 2.90 points after their hard-fought win over France.
Latest Men’s Rugby World Rankings
- South Africa – 93.94 (-)
- New Zealand – 91.04 (-)
- Ireland – 89.32 (-)
- France – 86.75 (-)
- Scotland – 84.71 (+2)
- England – 83.91 (-)
- Argentina – 83.77 (-2)
- Australia – 81.28 (-)
- Fiji – 79.53 (-)
- Italy – 77.31 (-)
- Wales – 76.68 (-)
- Japan – 76.42 (-)
- Georgia – 72.67 (-)
- USA – 69.40 (+2)
- Portugal – 68.51 (-1)
- Uruguay – 68.46 (-1)
- Chile – 67.31 (+1)
- Samoa – 66.91 (+2)
- Tonga – 66.88 (-)
- Spain – 66.64 (-3)
- Belgium – 61.02 (-)
- Romania – 60.08 (-)
- Canada – 59.63 (+2)
- Hong Kong China – 59.14 (-1)
- Zimbabwe – 58.59 (-1)
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