THE IRB’S RUGBY world ranking has a habit of producing statistical anomalies, but this morning’s revelation, that Wales had dropped two places over the course of the Rugby World Cup, must surely rank among the most incredible.
Warren Gatland’s side produced a series of commanding displays during the tournament, suffering a narrow defeat to South Africa in the tournament’s group stages before beating Ireland convincingly in the quarter-finals.
Those performances notwithstanding, Wales are judged to have lost ground to both Ireland and Argentina, who looked a shadow of the Puma side that reached the semi-finals of the 2007 competition, and fallen to eighth place, four ranking points above Tonga and Scotland.
The infrequency of international fixtures and the inability to quantify the quality of a performance militate against a more “honest” ranking, obviously, but this latest development remains an unsettling one.
The top ten reads as follows:
1. New Zealand 91.43
2. Australia 87.42
3. France 84.70
4. South Africa 84.34
5. England 81.58
6. Ireland 80.65
7. Argentina 80.28
8. Wales 80.18
9. Tonga 76.63
10. Scotland 76.20
Wales were 6th going into the World Cup, and their wins in the tournament all came against teams ranked below them. Plus they lost twice, and points in the World Cup count as double.
Ireland on the other hand, lost just the once, to a team ranked ahead of them when the tournament began. Plus they beat Australia.
For me, the statistical anomaly for Wales lies in treating the “Bronze Final” the same as other matches in the competition.
they lost 3 games…
how is Tonga at 67.63 ranked higher (9th) than Scotland at 76.20 (10th)?
They beat France at a World Cup where the points counted double. Scotland’s 2 wins came against Romania & Georgia, both below them in rankings.
Misread your question, Michael, my apologies. That’s a typo – they have 76.63pts
Typo amended. Carry on, chaps.