There was late drama in Georgia as Japan won the match and a place in the top 12 of the world rankings
Japanese players celebrate(Image: 2025 Levan Verdzeuli)
Wales have been given a world rankings boost before taking the field against New Zealand after Japan beat Georgia in TbIlisi to leapfrog them in the standings and push Wales up a place.
Eddie Jones’ side snatched a 25-23 win with a last minute penalty, moving from 13th to 12th in the table and securing a second seed spot for the 2027 World Cup draw on December 3. I means Georgia, who were above Wales at the start of the day, slip out of the second tier into 13th, with Steve Tandy’s side now 11th.
That’s the position they will keep heading into next year, no matter what happens against New Zealand and South Africa.
For Japan, it was another dramatic finish after losing with the last kick of the game against Wales seven days earlier. This time, Lee Seung Sin, who scored 20 points, held his nerve to land the winning kick with the clock in the red and spark wild celebrations.
As things stand, this is how the four bandings will look like when the draw is made:
Band 1: South Africa, New Zealand, England, Ireland, France, Argentina
Band 2: Australia, Fiji, Scotland, Italy, Wales, Japan
Band 3: Georgia, Spain, Uruguay, United States, Chile, Tonga
Band 4: Samoa, Portugal, Romania, Hong Kong, Canada, Zimbabwe
While there will be the luxury of knowing all the teams involved in the pool stages after next month’s draw, plotting a route to the final in Sydney is a little more convoluted.
For the first time in World Cup history, there is now a round of 16 – meaning more teams will qualify for the knockout stages than in previous tournaments.
The top two teams from each pool will progress to the round of 16, along with the four best third-placed nations.
The top team in Pools A, B, C and D will all face one of the teams that finished third in their group.
The winners of Pools E and F will play the runners-up from Pools D and B. And the runners-up from Pools A and C will take on the runners-up from Pools E and F.
There have been some suggestions that could lead to an imbalanced draw. For example, the winner of Pool A would play a third-placed team in the round of 16, but then could play the winner of Pool B if they also reached the quarter-final.
However, the winner of Pool E would play a second-placed team in both the round of 16 and quarter-finals.
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