{"id":407604,"date":"2026-02-04T15:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/407604\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T15:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:44:07","slug":"world-rugby-rankings-show-how-far-wales-have-fallen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/407604\/","title":{"rendered":"World Rugby Rankings show how far Wales have fallen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a sign of how far they have fallen, a record win over England<\/a> at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, would still not be enough to lift Wales<\/a> back into the world\u2019s top 10 ranked nations.<\/p>\n

Wales\u2019 record win over England at Twickenham is the 12-point victory in 1976, when they were in their pomp, but even if they improve on that and meet the highest World Rugby threshold of 16-plus points, and Italy<\/a> lose by the same margin at home to Scotland, they would still be behind the 10th-placed Azzurri in the rankings.<\/p>\n

Steve Tandy\u2019s men head into the 2026 Guinness Men\u2019s Nations in a lowly 11th place, with the deficit of 4.75 points between themselves and Italy too much to make up.<\/p>\n

Having been on top of the world, albeit very briefly on the eve of Rugby World Cup<\/a> 2019, Wales slipped to a record low of 14th when they were beaten in the first summer Test against Japan<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Things haven\u2019t got much better since then, but a win in the return match with Japan, which ended their record 18- losing streak, and a further narrow victory over the Brave Blossoms in November, has seen them edge back towards the top 10.<\/p>\n

But unless they spring a surprise and pull off a win between rounds one to four, they may have to wait until the final weekend encounter with Italy to get a chance of breaking through the glass ceiling and joining the elite again.<\/p>\n

At the top of the rankings, South Africa<\/a> and New Zealand<\/a> cannot be toppled from the first two positions, as England won\u2019t receive any points for what is perceived to be a home banker.<\/p>\n

While a record win for Wales wouldn\u2019t affect their position, it could lead to England dropping to fifth, if France<\/a> enjoy a narrow win over Ireland<\/a> in Thursday night\u2019s Six Nations<\/a> curtain-raiser in Paris.<\/p>\n

Ireland could also end the weekend in third at England\u2019s expense, as long as they turn over the French and Wales do them a favour in the final game of the weekend.<\/p>\n

Before England vs Wales, Italy host Scotland. A home win would result in the teams swapping places in the rankings, with the Azzurri moving up to ninth.<\/p>\n

Victory for Scotland<\/a> would have to be by 16 points or more for them to improve their position, with a gain of two places, to seventh, on the line.<\/p>\n

All four Rugby Europe Men\u2019s Championship matches also count towards the rankings, with the match between Belgium, ranked 21st, and Portugal, ranked 20th, looking the toughest one to call.<\/p>\n

Perennial champions Georgia<\/a> travel to Switzerland, who they thrashed 110-0 in last year\u2019s competition, runners-up Spain<\/a> are the visitors to Amsterdam for new Netherlands<\/a> head coach Bryan Easson\u2019s first match in charge, while Germany<\/a> host Romania<\/a> in Heidelberg, after the match was moved from Kassel due to a frozen pitch.<\/p>\n

World Rugby Men\u2019s Rankings<\/p>\n

1. South Africa 93.94
2. New Zealand 90.33
3. England 89.41
4. Ireland 87.97
5. France 87.24
6. Argentina<\/a> 84.97
7. Australia<\/a> 81.53
8. Fiji<\/a> 81.14
9. Scotland 80.22
10. Italy 78.98
11. Wales 74.23
12. Japan 74.09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a sign of how far they have fallen, a record win over England at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-407604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}