Saturday's significant 17-8 away win over Switzerland in the 2007 World Cup qualifiers has taken the Maltese national team to unprecedented heights in the latest International Rugby Board (IRB) ranking list.
Moving up nine places, Malta are now ranked 50th in the world while Switzerland dropped one place to 38th.
Tries from Charles Van Moll and Nick Warren and two conversions and a penalty scored by Rohan Spiteri pushed Malta past the highly-rated Switzerland, ensuring a perfect start to their bid of advancing into the second qualifying round draw of the 2007 World Cup, to be played in France.
"We never thought that Malta would achieve this feat in such a short period of time," national team manager Mike Beerman told The Times yesterday.
"Being among the top 50 rugby nations in the world goes a long way towards showing the vast improvement our team has achieved during the past four years.
"Against Switzerland, few people gave us a chance of success, especially in the light of the difficulties the team faced in their preparation for this qualifier.
"However, our one-week training camp in Bath, England proved very useful, enhancing the togetherness in our squad. The inclusion of new players also helped to strengthen the side even further."
Poland test
Ranked 34th in the world, Poland are expected to pose the biggest threat to Malta's hopes of moving past this qualifying group which also includes Serbia and Montenegro and Bulgaria.
The two nations meet in Marsa on November 6. Beerman believes that a win against the Polish would all but seal Malta's qualification to the next round.
"Poland are the strongest team in the group. It's going to be a tough test for us but hopefully the passionate support of the Maltese will see us through.
"I believe that if we beat Poland, we will be well placed to reach the second qualifying round of the competition.
"Success would also improve our position in the world list with all the benefits that is likely to bring.
"A higher ranking could see Malta avoiding some of the top teams in the draw, thus boosting our chances of making further progress in the competition."
Malta leapfrogged countries such as Peru in the latest IRB rankings. The South American team attained a 15-10 win over Colombia but they had relinquished a significant number of ranking points after their 74-0 loss to Paraguay on October 13.
Austria remain in 75th despite beating Bosnia, as their ratings superiority, including home advantage, meant that an Austrian win would not affect either side's rating.
Elsewhere, Paraguay exchanged positions with Brazil - rising from 36th to 33rd - following their 22-17 victory in the final match of the South American Division B Championship in Sao Paulo. The win also ensured their success in the competition.