We now know the World Rugby rankings and seedings for the 2027 World Cup draw next week
Wales will finish 2025 as the 11th best team in the world(Image: Getty Images)
World Rugby have announced the latest world rankings table that now confirms the final standings ahead of the World Cup draw next week.
This weekend’s results mean all sides’ current positions will be those they hold when the draw for the 2027 tournament is made in Sydney on Wednesday. Wales are now the 11th-ranked side in the global game despite a heavy defeat against New Zealand and will finish the year in that spot.
That change comes as a result of Japan’s 25-23 win in Georgia, which saw them secure 12th place and second seed status at the expense of Georgia who drop from 11th to 13th.
The world champion Springboks will be the number one team in the draw for the expanded 24-team tournament, even if they suffer a shock defeat against Wales on Saturday.
Likewise, Wales cannot drop below 11th or move up into 10th, no matter what the result.
The seedings for Wednesday’s draw are as follows.
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.
The current World Rugby rankings table
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