[Photo Credit: Fiji Rugby]

The Fiji Water Flying Fijians have moved up one place on the latest world rankings.

Fiji is now eighth while England has moved to third while Ireland is now fourth and Scotland dropped to ninth. Those were the movements in the top 10 when World Rugby updated the rankings this morning.

The latest rankings will determine the how the pools are going to be drawn for the World Cup in Australia in 2027.

The draws will be held on December 3rd in Australia.

Unlike the previous World Cup where there were 20 teams in five pools, this one will have 24 nations in six groups.

Once the 24 teams are confirmed, they are seeded from 1 to 24 based on their World Rugby rankings at the time of the draw on 3 December.

As things stand, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand, France, England and Argentina are the top six teams in the rankings.

The next six are Australia, Fiji, Scotland, Italy, Georgia and Wales. The top six teams will be grouped in Band 1, while the next six form Band 2, and so on. Each pool will have one team from each of the four bands.

There is only one exception to all this: Australia already know they are in Pool A as they are host nation and will therefore contest the opening game on 1 October 2027. The Wallabies are currently in Band 2, which means a team from Band 1 will be drawn and placed in Pool A, and they would automatically be joined by Australia.

However, should Australia climb into the top six by December, they would be automatically be the top-ranked team in Pool A, and a team from Band 2 would be drawn alongside them.

In previous tournaments going back to Rugby World Cup 2003, we have traditionally had 20 teams that were divided into four pools of five teams. The top two teams from each pool would then progress to the quarter-finals, which was the first round of the knockouts.

At Australia 2027 we will have 24 teams, and therefore the tournament requires a new format and one big change: a Round of 16 as the first knockout game.

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