After last Saturday's victory against Croatia, Malta is now among the world's top 50 nations as it is ranked 49th in the world rankings.

Several years ago, during his first term as President of the Malta Rugby Football Union, Kevin Buttigieg announced that the long term aim of the MRFU was to achieve a place in the top 50 of the IRB world rankings.

Malta will now try to improve on that ranking on Saturday when it meets Belgium at the King Badouin Stadium in Brussels in another qualifier.

Belgium are 17 places above Malta at 32, whereas Croatia were 36th. Malta's aim now is to break into the top 40.