Wales sink to lowest ever world ranking as pressure mounts on Gatland
Wales head coach Warren Gatland.
Pressure is quickly mounting on Wales head coach Warren Gatland, as Wales fall outside of the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time in their history.
The defeat to Joe Schmidt’s Australia marks their eighth-straight loss following their exit at the World Cup, and Fiji‘s victory over Georgia yesterday has condemned Gatland’s side to 11th in the world rankings.
Wales tumble to worst world ranking
Whilst they are showing signs of improvement, they are winless since their 43-19 win over Georgia during the World Cup pool stage.
According to the official World Rugby guide, Fiji’s 21-12 win over Georgia has put them on 77.44 points in the rankings due to winning by a margin of less than 15.
On the same points system, today’s 25-13 defeat to Australia has left Wales on 76.58, moving them down to 11th. Prior to this, Wales were sat on 77.26 points in the ranking system.
Pressure mounts on Warren Gatland
Gatland returned as Wales head coach in late 2022 following a tough Autumn Nations Series under then coach Wayne Pivac, which included their 13-12 defeat to Georgia.
Since Gatland’s return to the top job, Wales have just six wins from 20 matches. In his first Six Nations back in charge, Wales finished fifth, and only recorded one win over Italy in the final game.
Things looked like they were on the up after this though, as Wales beat England in a World Cup warm-up, and later topped their pool at the tournament with four wins from four.
Hope was quickly squashed though, as they fell to defeat in the quarter-finals against Argentina. This Six Nations, they also finished rock bottom of the table this season, losing all five of their fixtures across the Championship.
They followed this up with a heavy defeat to South Africa at Twickenham last month, and today fell to yet another loss against the Wallabies.
The challenge for Gatland is if he can turn his side’s fortunes around, but pressure is certainly mounting on the experienced coach.
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