IRB World Rankings

[Oldschool]

What does the draw do for our ranking?

[Dexter]

What does the draw do for our ranking?

By my reckoning it moves us very marginally above Argentina into 7th. It's very close though (0.02 points I think) so it depends on rounding/accuracy etc..
A win would still have left us on 7th, but practically equal to England.

[Xanthippe]

What does the draw do for our ranking?

By my reckoning it moves us very marginally above Argentina into 7th. It's very close though (0.02 points I think) so it depends on rounding/accuracy etc..
A win would still have left us on 7th, but practically equal to England.

Your reckoning is the same as mine.

We move on to 80.30 points and up to 7th and France move to 84.20 and down to 4th.

edit - France down to 4th not 5th

[johng]

What does the draw do for our ranking?

By my reckoning it moves us very marginally above Argentina into 7th. It's very close though (0.02 points I think) so it depends on rounding/accuracy etc..
A win would still have left us on 7th, but practically equal to England.

Your reckoning is the same as mine.

We move on to 80.30 points and up to 7th and France move to 84.20 and down to 5th.

2 more wins. Don't play the Argies in the Autumn, and we're sorted.

Edit: Obviously the major reason the AIs have not been fixed yet.

[cormac]

By my reckoning it moves us very marginally above Argentina into 7th. It's very close though (0.02 points I think) so it depends on rounding/accuracy etc..
A win would still have left us on 7th, but practically equal to England.

Your reckoning is the same as mine.

We move on to 80.30 points and up to 7th and France move to 84.20 and down to 5th.

2 more wins. Don't play the Argies in the Autumn, and we're sorted.

Edit: Obviously the major reason the AIs have not been fixed yet.

We're playing South Africa, one of the Pac Island teams and Argentina (in that order) in November. If we beat Scotland on Saturday it should be enough to keep them at bay until December (and keep us in Tier 2) unless they pull off a couple of shock wins this Summer or November.

[Dexter]

A win against Scotland next week would make very little difference to our ranking points, as they are a good bit behind us. A loss, however, would be a disaster! We would lose a lot of ground and be a fair bit back in 8th, with Scotland closing in.

The NZ tour during the summer is a no-loss situation in terms of ranking, they are so far ahead of us that losses would have zero effect, while any win would have a massive effect.

...and the IRB rankings have just been published which reflect what we said, Ireland up to 7th on 80.30, very slightly ahead of Argentina on 80.28.

[colinmtn]

We're playing South Africa, one of the Pac Island teams and Argentina (in that order) in November. If we beat Scotland on Saturday it should be enough to keep them at bay until December (and keep us in Tier 2) unless they pull off a couple of shock wins this Summer or November.

I heard it was South Africa then a Pac island team then Australia

[Dexter]

Ireland down to 7th, only 0.57 ahead of Samoa and Argentina in 8th and 9th.

[Flash Gordon]

Ireland down to 7th, only 0.57 ahead of Samoa and Argentina in 8th and 9th.

So our level is a country with a population of less than 200k? I.e. half the size of greater Cork. Jasus.

[suisse]

I remember when Declan Kidney took over as Ireland coach in 2008 and we were about to play NZ in Croke Park, he reminded us through the media that Ireland are as close to Canada in the official IRB rankings as NZ. The previous week we had hammered Canada in TP.

5 years later, guess what? NZ are ranked 1st (90.08), Ireland are 7th (79.28), and Canada are 14th (71.41). We're closer to Canada than NZ.

[blues_fan]

Ireland down to 7th, only 0.57 ahead of Samoa and Argentina in 8th and 9th.

So our level is a country with a population of less than 200k? I.e. half the size of greater Cork. Jasus.

Their team is full of poached kiwis. Don't worry, all Ireland need to do is wait one more generation when Samoa can't rely on the granny rule to stack their team.

[Ultra Vires]

Question: Other than once every four years when the draw for the WC is made, do the rankings ever matter?

[Dexter]

Question: Other than once every four years when the draw for the WC is made, do the rankings ever matter?

No, not really.

[sid]

Question: Other than once every four years when the draw for the WC is made, do the rankings ever matter?

Yes. If we ever drop below Scotland, the earth's atmosphere dissolves to reveal a large, colourful sign saying "Level Failed, Try Again".

[Dexter]

Question: Other than once every four years when the draw for the WC is made, do the rankings ever matter?

Yes. If we ever drop below Scotland, the earth's atmosphere dissolves to reveal a large, colourful sign saying "Level Failed, Try Again".

Well, if Italy win next week we'll be getting ever closer to them. We would go to 9th, one place ahead of Scotland. (unless of course Scotland also beat France and we go to 10th).

[StrangeButBlue]

This shows the IRB Ranking points over the last 10 years. Eddie left us at 77.18. We are now at 78.05.
You can see the trend since the 2010 6 Nations

[Xanthippe]

Rankings at the end of the 6 Nations:

1	NEW ZEALAND	90.08	
2	SOUTH AFRICA	86.94	
3	AUSTRALIA	86.87	
4	ENGLAND		83.72
5	WALES		83.36
6	FRANCE		81.59
7	SAMOA		78.71
8	ARGENTINA	78.71	
9	IRELAND		78.05
10	SCOTLAND	76.87	
11	TONGA		76.10
12	ITALY		76.05
13	CANADA		71.41
14	FIJI		70.60
15	JAPAN		70.09

[Xanthippe]

Rankings after this weekend:

1	NEW ZEALAND	90.08	
2	SOUTH AFRICA	86.94	
3	AUSTRALIA	86.87	
4	ENGLAND		84.92
5	WALES		83.36
6	FRANCE		81.59
7	SAMOA		79.52
8	IRELAND		78.33
9	ARGENTINA	77.51	
10	ITALY		76.06
11	SCOTLAND	76.05	
12	TONGA		75.67
13	CANADA		73.65
14	FIJI		71.29
15	JAPAN		68.91
16	GEORGIA		67.66
17	USA		67.64
18	ROMANIA		66.17
19	RUSSIA		61.99
20	SPAIN		60.44

Scotland's loss to Samoa sees them dropping out of the top 10 with their place being taken by Italy and Ireland's victory in Houston moves us up to 8th ahead of Argentina who drop following defeat by England

[tones]

The funny thing about Scotland losing to Samoa is that Telfer, and alot of Scots, were giving out about their respresentation on the Lions in comparison to ours based on 6 Nations tables (while there is some logic to that). Most of the reason lies with who was the coach.

[Fireworks]

Rankings after this weekend:

1	NEW ZEALAND	90.08	
2	SOUTH AFRICA	86.94	
3	AUSTRALIA	86.87	
4	ENGLAND		84.92
5	WALES		83.36
6	FRANCE		81.59
7	SAMOA		79.52
8	IRELAND		78.34
9	ARGENTINA	77.51	
10	ITALY		76.06
11	SCOTLAND	76.05	
12	TONGA		75.67
13	CANADA		73.65
14	FIJI		71.29
15	JAPAN		68.91
16	GEORGIA		67.66
17	USA		67.64
18	ROMANIA		66.17
19	RUSSIA		61.99
20	SPAIN		60.44

Scotland's loss to Samoa sees them dropping out of the top 10 with their place being taken by Italy and Ireland's victory in Houston moves us up to 8th ahead of Argentina who drop following defeat by England

I believe that over the period of the last two coaches we have had the players to be a consistent top 5 team. We should have been competing for a top 3 spot not worrying about staying in the top 8. That is a target the IRFU should work on. The provinces are going the right way with their academies and with a professional management put in place it is an achievable goal.