Shaun Edwards urges Wales to improve their ranking

Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards urged his team to improve their position in the World Rugby Rankings during the upcoming autumn internationals.

Wales will take on Australia, Argentina, Japan and South Africa in their November Tests, all of which will be played at Millennium Stadium.

Currently, Wales are placed fifth in the World Rankings with 82.49 rating points behind New Zealand, England, Australia and South Africa. Wales have a realistic chance to close in the third placed Wallabies, if they perform well in the autumn internationals.

With the top four teams in the rankings likely to gain advantage over their fixtures in the 2019 World Cup, Edwards wants Wales to give their best shot in the upcoming four Tests.

"It's about six or seven teams vying for those top four spots in the world rankings.

"We've only been in that top four four per cent of the time since the world rankings came to fruition 15 or 16 years ago.

"So if we can push our way into the top four that will be a big effort from our boys, and that's what we're aiming to do.

"That would be mission accomplished with the World Cup draw on the horizon."

When the draw for the 2015 World Cup were announced, Wales were positioned ninth in the rankings and ended up in the same group as Australia and England. Even though, they managed to qualify to the knock-out stage over England, Edwards believes an improved ranking will benefit the team in the mega event in Japan.

In the last 11 games between the two countries, Wales have never beaten Australia but Michael Cheika's men have been undergoing a transition period and have lost eight out of their last 10 games since the 2015 World Cup final.

Edwards is still wary of the damage, Wallabies can cause on Saturday's encounter.

"They have had some criticism over the summer but they came second in the Rugby Championship.

"At the moment New Zealand are obviously number one by a distance, but the rest of the competition they basically won.

"So what I've tended to do looking at Australia's form is to watch the games when they've not played New Zealand.

"People talk about their two sevens, but they have other outstanding players other than (Michael) Hooper and (David) Pocock."

Wales skipper Sam Warburton has already been ruled out of the game against Australia allowing a start for Justin Tipuric while they continue to wait on the fitness of full-back Liam Williams and lock forward Jake Ball.

"Liam was in a boot last week, it did look serious, but we'll wait until the last minute with the medics," Edwards said.

"We're hopeful he'll play, but he'll definitely play some part in the series over the next month.

"Jake has started light training, so we'll see if he's available for selection later in the week.

"Sam will go back to the Blues to get some game time under his belt, but I'm a big fan of Justin Tipuric.

"Our defensive system is very reliant on people having speed and Justin really helps our line speed when he plays."