World Rankings - Ireland up to 4th

Downtime

Ireland up 1 to 4th swapping places with France. Now less than a point behind Australia sealing our top northern hemisphere side spot. Wales down 2 to eight. And Andorra the biggest movers up 5 places to 66.

We've moved four places in the year from 8th to 4th.

http://www.irb.com/rankings/index.html

danthefan

We were 4th going into the AIs.

redmca

danthefan wrote: »

We were 4th going into the AIs.

Looks very true reflection of the current strengths especially in Europe - Ireland, France, England, Wales, Scotland, Italy in that order

mink_man

england i think could be a surprise in the 6 nations

ScrubsfanChris

danthefan wrote: »

We were 4th going into the AIs.

Yes,
The only major change is that NZ have moved to first ahead of SA.

seany2929

mink_man wrote: »

england i think could be a surprise in the 6 nations

Maybe but hopefully not

faigs

If only Wales could have beaten Australia, we'd now be in thrid!

Aidric

faigs wrote: »

If only Wales could have beaten Australia, we'd now be in thrid!

That never looked likely on Saturday, they were comprehensively played off the pitch.

[Jackass]

How the feck were Italy down to 12th???

They were behind Fiji & Saoma, who don't even play serious competition throughout the year...

Shouldn't they really be making more progress than this? Shouldn't they be challenging more by now? I think they finished within 10 of NZ at the San Siro? Would love to see Italy get a big scalp...not us :pac: but would love to see them beat someone like France at home in a 6 nations or get an away win at Scotland or Wales or something... just to get some big results...

Podge_irl

[Jackass] wrote: »

How the feck were Italy down to 12th???

They were behind Fiji & Saoma, who don't even play serious competition throughout the year...

Its more or less precisely for that reason that Italy are lower down. Italy play, and lose, to the 6N team a lot, which is constantly costing them ranking points. Fiji and Samoa earn some points playing in the Pacific 5/6N (whatever it is).

mayoireland

roll on the 6 nations (france are still not firing on all cilinders)thank god

padser

[Jackass] wrote: »

How the feck were Italy down to 12th???

They were behind Fiji & Saoma, who don't even play serious competition throughout the year...

Shouldn't they really be making more progress than this? Shouldn't they be challenging more by now? I think they finished within 10 of NZ at the San Siro? Would love to see Italy get a big scalp...not us :pac: but would love to see them beat someone like France at home in a 6 nations or get an away win at Scotland or Wales or something... just to get some big results...

Problem is the way the IRB rankings work you don't lose points for not playing (unless you dont play for something like 3 consectutive years - and even then I think you are just dormant - you don't lose points)

So Italy playing and losing all years hurts them a lot....

Blisterman

Bit of a shame. Maybe it should be something like Tennis, where you get points for winning, and your ranking it done on whos won the most points in the previous year.

irishbucsfan

Ranking system is fine, the problem is Italy should be scheduling games against teams like Samoa and Fiji and Tonga during the AIs so that they can gain more points, rather than against teams like NZ who they're never going to be competitive against. It's their own fault.

I'd love to see them progress though, especially with the Italian teams entering the Magners league (which will really help Italian rugby).

lobber

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Ranking system is fine, the problem is Italy should be scheduling games against teams like Samoa and Fiji and Tonga during the AIs so that they can gain more points, rather than against teams like NZ who they're never going to be competitive against. It's their own fault.

I'd love to see them progress though, especially with the Italian teams entering the Magners league (which will really help Italian rugby).

The ranking doesn't really count for much. If Italy want to develop then they need to be tested against the top teams. If they want to increase their rankings
only they can play minnows and get no real value out of it. Consequently they earn less ranking points for beating low ranked teams as well.

How are England up one place from 7th to 6th seeing as they lost to New Zealand???

irishbucsfan

lobber wrote: »

The ranking doesn't really count for much. If Italy want to develop then they need to be tested against the top teams. If they want to increase their rankings
only they can play minnows and get no real value out of it. Consequently they earn less ranking points for beating low ranked teams as well.

Italy won't develop at all from playing the top teams. They'll just lose consistently (killing interest in the game in Italy) and it's impossible to build a squad around a losing atmosphere. If they were to spend these months playing the teams around them in the rankings then they can start to climb (They should be able to beat the teams around them). If Italy played their AIs against Fiji, Samoa and either Tonga or Canada then they could easilly be as high as 9th right now, which would be excellent for them.

lobber

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Italy won't develop at all from playing the top teams. They'll just lose consistently (killing interest in the game in Italy) and it's impossible to build a squad around a losing atmosphere. If they were to spend these months playing the teams around them in the rankings then they can start to climb (They should be able to beat the teams around them). If Italy played their AIs against Fiji, Samoa and either Tonga or Canada then they could easilly be as high as 9th right now, which would be excellent for them.

Again the ranking system isn't a measure of progress. A team can jump a few places by virtue of others ahead of them losing. Italy can come out of the AI's with some solace having beaten Samoa to end their bad run of losses and only conceding one try.

Playing minnows will not bridge the gap enough for six nations and world cups.
The inclusion of italian teams in the Magners league should help to start working on developing more payers to give the international team more depth.

Also Italian rugby is fighting the allure of soccer. They need to play the top teams to grow a bigger fan base and generate a national interest.

stephen_n

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Ranking system is fine, the problem is Italy should be scheduling games against teams like Samoa and Fiji and Tonga during the AIs so that they can gain more points, rather than against teams like NZ who they're never going to be competitive against. It's their own fault.

I'd love to see them progress though, especially with the Italian teams entering the Magners league (which will really help Italian rugby).

I think if the penalty try that should have been awarded, had been, in the San Siro. They would have been more competitive in that game than we have been against the All Blacks here and considering they packed the stadium I can see why the Italians would want to play them revenue wise. In the end of the day these world rankings are not going to stop Italy making it to the world cup and even getting beaten by better teams constantly has it's benefits over playing poor opposition and winning games!

DOC09UNAM

stephen_n wrote: »

I think if the penalty try that should have been awarded, had been, in the San Siro. They would have been more competitive in that game than we have been against the All Blacks here and considering they packed the stadium I can see why the Italians would want to play them revenue wise. In the end of the day these world rankings are not going to stop Italy making it to the world cup and even getting beaten by better teams constantly has it's benefits over playing poor opposition and winning games!

The only match in the AIs that affected irelands ranking points was the match against Fiji.

Blisterman

If italy were to play and beat every team ranked below them, and lose to every team above them, would their ranking increase or stay the same?

Basically, does your ranking only improve if you beat teams ranked higher than you?

Podge_irl

Blisterman wrote: »

Basically, does your ranking only improve if you beat teams ranked higher than you?

No, but they do have to be within a certain distance of you, points-wise. Being home or away makes a difference as well.