Top 20 Rankings as of 9 June 2008[1]
Rank	Team	Points
1	South Africa	90. The South Africa national Rugby union team (commonly referred to as the Springboks in English Springbokke in Afrikaans and Amabokoboko 81
2	New Zealand	89. The All Blacks are New Zealand's national team in Rugby union, the country's National sport. 59
3	Argentina	87. The Argentina national rugby team, nicknamed Los Pumas, represents Argentina in international Rugby union matches 42
4	Australia	84. The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in Rugby union. 20
5	England	83. The England national rugby union team represents England in Rugby union. 36
6	Wales	80. The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international 12
7	France	79. The France national rugby union team represents France in Rugby union. 61
8	Ireland	77. The Ireland rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in Rugby union, which is a popular sport throughout both the Republic of Ireland and 18
9	Fiji	76. The Fiji National rugby union team is one of the strongest national rugby union teams of the world and the third from Oceania, even still as a second tier nation 29
10	Scotland	74. The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international Rugby union. 92
11	Italy	73. For the rugby sevens side see Italian national rugby union team (sevens The Italy national rugby union team represent the nation of 57
12	Tonga	71. The Tonga national rugby union team is nicknamed Ikale Tahi (Sea Eagles. 51
13	Samoa	71. The national Rugby union team of Samoa is called Manu Samoa (the name of a famous Samoan chief some 10 generations ago 20
14	Georgia	69. The Georgia national rugby union team represents the former Soviet Caucasian republic of Georgia in Rugby union. 06
15	Canada	67. For the Canadian Rugby league team see Canada national rugby league team. 25
16	Japan	66. For the Japanese Rugby League team see Japan national rugby league team. 20
17	Romania	66. The Romania national rugby union team, nicknamed The Oaks ( Stejarii) have long been one of the stronger European teams outside of the Six Nations 17
18	Russia	65. The Russia national rugby union team is the national team of Russia. 85
19	United States	64. For the American Rugby league team see United States national rugby league team. 68
20	Uruguay	63. Uruguay has played in the 1999 and 2003 Rugby World Cups They have been playing international rugby since the late 1940s 18

The IRB World Rankings is a ranking system for men's national teams in rugby union. A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that for any two items the first is either "ranked higher than" "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal Overview See also Playing rugby union A rugby union match lasts for 80 minutes (plus stoppage time with a short The teams of the member nations of IRB (International Rugby Board), governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. The International Rugby Board (IRB is the world governing and law-making body for the sport of Rugby union, and previously for Rugby football. A point system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of IRB-recognized international matches. Under the system, rankings are based on a team's performance, with more recent results and more significant matches being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team. The ranking system was introduced after the 2003 Rugby World Cup, with the first edition of the new series of rankings issued on October 20, 2003. The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby union world cup and was won by England. Events 1740 - Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Contents 1 Uses of the rankings 2 Rank leaders 3 Current calculation method 4 How it works 4.1 Match result 4.2 Match status 4.3 Opposition strength 4.4 Home advantage 4.5 New and dormant nations 5 References 6 External links

Uses of the rankings

The rankings are used by the IRB to rank the progression and current ability of the national rugby union teams of its member nations, but the data were historically used by IRB for very few things. Through 2007, the rankings were not even used as part of the calculation to seed competitions such as the Rugby World Cup; the IRB instead used results from previous World Cups for this purpose. The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international Rugby union world championship inaugurated in 1987. A single-elimination tournament, also called a knockout, cup or sudden death tournament, is a type of Tournament where the loser of each The Rugby World Cup is the premier international Rugby union competition The Rugby World Cup is the premier international Rugby union competition

This, however, has changed; the IRB announced on 22 February 2008 that the World Rankings would be used to seed teams for the 2011 Rugby World Cup pool allocation draw. Events 1495 - King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common The 2011 Rugby World Cup will be the seventh staging of the tournament. ^[2]

Rank leaders

When the system was introduced, England debuted as the top ranked team following their extended period of dominance in which they had won the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The England national rugby union team represents England in Rugby union. However, a resurgency in the form of New Zealand helped them take the lead from 7 June 2004. The All Blacks are New Zealand's national team in Rugby union, the country's National sport. Events 1099 - The First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " After winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup final, South Africa became only the third team to achieve first place in the rankings. The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international Rugby union world championship inaugurated in 1987.

Current calculation method

All IRB member countries have been given a rating that is in the range of 0 to 100 with the top side in the world achieving a rating of about 90 points. The actual point system is calculated using a 'Points Exchange' system, in which sides receive points from each other based upon the match result. Whatever one side gains, the other loses. The exchanges are based on the match result, the ranking of each team, and the margin of victory. There is also an allowance for home advantage. As the system aims to depict current team strengths, past successes or losses will fade and be superseded by more recent results. Thus, it is thought that it will produce an accurate picture depicting the actual current strength and thus rank of the nations. ^[3] The rankings are responsive to results and it is possible to climb to the top from the bottom (and vice-versa) in less than 20 matches. As all matches are worth a total of 0 points (as whatever one side gains, the other loses) there is no particular advantage to playing more matches. Under the system, a country has a certain rating, which stays the same until they play again. Although matches often result in points exchanges, relatively 'predictable' results lead to very minor changes, and may result in no change to either side's rating at all.

How it works

The system ensures that it is representative of the teams' performance despite playing differing numbers of matches per annum, and the differing strength of opposition that teams have to face. The factors taken into account are as follows:

• Match result
• Match status
• Opposition strength
• Home advantage

Match result

For each match played points exchanges are awarded for the following five outcomes and was developed using results of international matches from 1871 to the present day:

• a win or loss by more than 15 points
• a win or loss by up to 15 points
• a draw

Match status

Different matches have different importance to teams, and the IRB has tried to respect this by using a weighting system, where the most significant matches are in the World Cup Finals. Thus, points exchanges are doubled during the World Cup Finals to recognise the unique importance of this event. The Rugby World Cup is the premier international Rugby union competition All other full international matches are treated the same, to be as fair as possible to countries playing a different mix of friendly and competitive matches across the world. Matches that do not have full international status between two member countries do not count at all.

Opposition strength

Obviously, a win against a very highly ranked opponent is a considerably greater achievement than a win against a low-rated opponent, so the strength of the opposing team is a factor. Thus match results are more important than margins of victory in producing accurate rankings. This is because when a highly ranked tier 1 team plays a lowly-ranked tier 3 team and manages to beat them by over 50 points, it does not indicate how either team will perform in the future.

Home advantage

When calculating points exchanges, the home side is handicapped by treating them as though they are three rating points better than their actual current rating. This results in the home side gaining fewer points for winning and losing more points for losing. Because of this, any advantage that a side may have by playing in front of their home crowd is cancelled out.

New and dormant nations

All new member nations start with a 40 points, which is provisional until they have completed 10 test matches. Overview See also Playing rugby union A rugby union match lasts for 80 minutes (plus stoppage time with a short When countries merge, the new country inherits the highest rating of any of the two countries but when they split, the new countries will inherit a rating at a fixed level below the rating of the original country.

Countries that have not played a test in a couple of years are removed from the ranking system and the list but if they are active again, they will pick up their ratings from where they left off. Overview See also Playing rugby union A rugby union match lasts for 80 minutes (plus stoppage time with a short

References

External links

• Official World Rankings

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