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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ben James

World Rugby rankings set for major change as Wales face unprecedented worst position ever if they lose

Wales could fall to their lowest ever men's ranking this weekend.

Defeat to Gareth Baber's Fiji on Sunday would see Wayne Pivac's side drop to 11th in the world rankings, with Fiji leapfrogging them up to ninth.

Wales have sat 10th twice before since the rankings were introduced in 2003, but never lower. The first time came after Wales' early exit from the 2007 Rugby World Cup, when they were sent crashing out of the tournament by Fiji.

Five years later, Wales lost all four of their autumn internationals in 2012 before opening their 2013 Six Nations campaign with a defeat to Ireland - a result which also sent the men in red down to 10th - before firing back to win the title, helped by the famous 30-3 win over England.

READ MORE: How Wales will deploy Josh Adams at centre as Wayne Pivac leaves clues

Elsewhere, there could be significant movement. England can leapfrog Australia with a win over the Wallabies at Twickenham - while Ireland would jump above both with victory over the All Blacks in Dublin.

Were that to happen, the Springboks would jump back to number one in the world if they don't lose to Scotland.

Scotland could end up anywhere between seventh and fourth - with the high-point dependent on them beating the Boks and both England and Ireland losing.

World Rugby Rankings

1. New Zealand - 91.36

2. South Africa - 91.33

3. Australia - 86.26

4. England - 85.44

5. Ireland - 84.96

6. France - 84.25

7. Scotland - 83.27

8. Argentina - 80.30

9. Wales - 79.99

10. Japan - 78.50

11. Fiji - 77.01

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