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<\/p>\nSteve Tandy’s side are back in the world’s top 10, without playing a match this weekend<\/p>\n
Harry Potter looks to evade Ryunosuke Ito(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Wales have moved back into the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time in over two years.<\/p>\n
Despite not playing, Japan’s 35-32 defeat to Australia in Osaka has moved Steve Tandy’s side up to 10th. That marks the first time since July 2024 that Wales have been part of the top 10.<\/p>\n
Eddie Jones’ Brave Blossoms had threatened to spoil Les Kiss’ first match in charge of the Wallabies, running Australia close.<\/p>\n
The scores were level at the break, with Ryunosuke Ito and Faulua Makisi scoring for Japan. Australia had Harry Potter and Tom Wright to thank for their first-half tries.<\/p>\n
JOIN OUR WALES RUGBY FACEBOOK PAGE Latest news, analysis and much more<\/a><\/p>\n However, the Wallabies were dealt a blow when Miles Amatosero was shown a 20-minute red card off for a high clearout on Warner Dearns.<\/p>\n Despite that setback, the Wallabies did push ahead early in the second-half – with Max Jorgensen and Fraser McReight touching down either side of Taira Main’s score.<\/p>\n The boot of Takuro Matsunaga kept Japan in the match, only for Taniela Tupou’s try 10 minutes from time to seemingly make things safe.<\/p>\n The influential Dearns gave Japan hope late on, crashing over a try with a minute to go.<\/p>\n However, a first-ever win over Australia eluded Japan in the end.<\/p>\n With the Wallabies getting over the line in the first match of former Queensland Reds boss Kiss’ reign, that sees Japan drop two places in the rankings.<\/p>\n Wales move up to 10th, with Italy climbing to 11th.<\/p>\n The relative rise comes after Wales dropped dramatically down the rankings in recent years.<\/p>\n Back in 2019, they were briefly top of the rankings after a 14-match unbeaten run.<\/p>\n Having then been ranked seventh in the world ahead of a World Cup quarter-final against Argentina in 2023, an 18-match losing run saw Wales plummet.<\/p>\n Having fallen out of the top 10 in 2024 following defeat to Australia in Sydney, they have remained there in the two years since.<\/p>\n Last summer, they fell as low as 14th following a loss to Japan in Kitakyushu.<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Tandy’s side are back in the world’s top 10, without playing a match this weekend Harry Potter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[17613,110371,5903,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-731749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-australia-rugby-team","tag-japan-rugby-team","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731749","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=731749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}