Akuila Cama 
Flying Fijians head coach Mick Byrne [File Photo]
The World Rugby rankings is vital in this World Cup cycle than it was in the past according to Flying Fijians head coach Mick Byrne as it can make a difference in the pool draws for the 2027 tournament in Australia.
Byrne also believes beating teams above Fiji on the world rankings will help the Flying Fijians move up the ladder.
This is vital as the top six teams heading into the next World Cup will have some advantages in terms of qualifying for the knockout stages.
The national side could have moved to eighth on the world rankings on the weekend but they just fell short by one ranking point.
A 16 point winning margin would have made the difference but we beat Scotland by 15 points on Saturday in Suva.
World Rankings will be used to seed teams into bands for the rankings.
Teams will be in search of rankings gains in order to increase their chances of a favorable draws.
Fiji is presently ranked 9th in the world and means that they’re outside of the first band of teams ranked 1st to 6th, however, are in the second band from 7th to 12th.
The national coach also says they have another two tier one Tests at the end of the year and six next year.
The 2027 World Cup will be expanded from 20 to 24 teams where a round of 16 will be introduced with top two teams from each pool automatically qualifying along with the best four third-placed teams.
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