Scotland’s emphatic victory over Wales last Saturday may have much bigger ramifications for the likes of England and New Zealand after it opened the door to the very realistic possibility of a ‘Pool of Death’ at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The tournament is more than two years away, but the Six Nations is pivotal to how May’s World Cup draw will be formatted given it is the last chance for the world ranking to alter, with no international rugby scheduled from the final round of the Six Nations on 17 March until the draw on 10 May.

That’s why Saturday’s result at Murrayfield had such a big impact on the 2019 event, with the rankings making glum reading for Wales. The 29-13 defeat was not only the first time Wales had lost to Scotland in 10 years, but also saw Vern Cotter’s side leapfrog their Celtic rivals as well as South Africa and move into fifth place in World Rugby’s rankings, with the Welsh dropping down to seventh.

Having started the Six Nations with two losses and one victory – a 33-7 win over Italy – Wales have already lost 1.39 ranking points to see them fall below the Springboks and the Scots. With the visit of Ireland to the Principality Stadium up next, and a testing trip to France where they have lost more often than won to end the championship, the prospect of losing four matches in this year’s Six Nations is a very real one.

Should Wales suffer defeat in their remaining two fixtures and lose a similar number of points, they would not only drop behind eighth-placed France but also ninth-placed Argentina, dropping them to the third tier of World Cup seedings.

That would not only be cause for concern for Wales, but also for the top seeds of New Zealand, England, Australia and Ireland. The top four look safe unless Ireland suffer an almighty collapse over the next two games and Scotland do the reverse to not only move up to fourth in the rankings but most likely win the Six Nations for the first time claiming the last Five Nations title in 1999.

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Potential ‘Pool of Death’ for Wales: (If they are ranked ninth)

Those four teams will go into the World Cup draw in pot one, with Scotland and South Africa looking set to be in pot two. The rest of the pot will be completed by two of three nations, with Wales, France and Argentina vying not to be the team that drops down to pot three. As Argentina do not play again before the draw, their ranking total of 79.91 is the benchmark for the other two countries, which gives Wales a buffer of 1.25 and 0.66 for France.

Should Wales drop down to ninth by the end of the Six Nations, a repeat of the 2015 Rugby World Cup draw could be on the cards where England and Wales were placed in the same group, dubbed the ‘Pool of Death’ due to Australia’s inclusion as well.

Potential dream draw for Wales: (If they are ranked ninth)

This time around, such a draw could see South Africa or Scotland take the place of the Wallabies in an equally daunting group. The other three teams set to fill pool three are less daunting, with Japan, Georgia and Italy the other teams to have so far qualified for the 2019 World Cup.