Best 100 Teams Worldwide

[Brigantine]

The World Rugby Rankings are great and all, and within each specific competition (be it international, provincial, club, whatever), you can get a sense of where each team ranks and how competitive it is, even if no one calculates ELO rankings.

But how do you compare teams in totally different competitions?

For example, Namibia is rank 20 in the World Rugby Rankings. So they are the 20th best team in the world *in the specific category of main men's national rep teams*. But not the 20th best team in the world period. Where would they rank? about 30th, 100th, or 1000th? Where does a team have to be on World Rugby Rankings to *actually* be one of the best teams in the world?

Any answer is going to be highly subjective, but many different highly subjective opinions are better than one. So, some questions for as many of you as possible:

Q1 - Out of the teams people have already mentioned, how would you rank them? (approximately - grouped into bands or whatever)
Q2 - Are there some other teams you can nominate, that you think might be in the top 100? (Union XVs teams with actual scheduled matches only, but apart from that, anything goes)
Q3 - What ways can you judge? Which ways work, which ones are rubbish?

I'll start with a mostly random set of teams:

• 30 Top national men's rep sides (current rank 1-30)
• 5 Top national women's rep sides (current rank 1-5)
• 6 Selected national "A" sides - NZ, Eng, SA, Ire, Arg, Italy
• 3 Selected extras - The Lions, Barbarians, and Maori AB's
• 17 Super Rugby teams (didn't count the Kings)
• 12 AP teams
• 12 Pro12 teams
• 14 Top14 teams
• 1 Selected NZ Provincial / Mitre10 Cup team - Canterbury

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<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px">And here's the full list: (if it works)&emsp;<input type="button" value="Show" style="width:45px;font-size:10px;margin:0px;padding:0px;" onClick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = ''; this.innerText = ''; this.value = 'Hide'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerText = ''; this.value = 'Show'; }">
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<ol><li>New Zealand
</li><li>England
</li><li>South Africa
</li><li>Australia
</li><li>Wales
</li><li>Ireland
</li><li>Argentina
</li><li>France
</li><li>Scotland
</li><li>Fiji
</li><li>Georgia
</li><li>Japan
</li><li>Italy
</li><li>Samoa
</li><li>Tonga
</li><li>Romania
</li><li>USA
</li><li>Canada
</li><li>Uruguay
</li><li>Namibia
</li><li>Russia
</li><li>Kenya
</li><li>Spain
</li><li>Belgium
</li><li>Hong Kong
</li><li>Germany
</li><li>Ukraine
</li><li>Chile
</li><li>Korea
</li><li>Portugal
</li><li>New Zealand W
</li><li>Canada W
</li><li>England W
</li><li>France W
</li><li>Ireland W
</li><li>New Zealand A (Junior All Blacks)
</li><li>England A (England Saxons)
</li><li>South Africa A (Emerging Springboks)
</li><li>Ireland (Emerging Ireland)
</li><li>Argentina A (Argentina Jaguars)
</li><li>Italy A (Emerging Italy)
</li><li>British and Irish Lions
</li><li>Barbarian F.C.
</li><li>New Zealand Maori All Blacks
</li><li>SR Jaguares
</li><li>SR Stormers
</li><li>SR Cheetahs
</li><li>SR Sharks
</li><li>SR Bulls
</li><li>SR Lions
</li><li>SR Sunwolves
</li><li>SR Force
</li><li>SR Rebels
</li><li>SR Reds
</li><li>SR Brumbies
</li><li>SR Warratahs
</li><li>SR Blues
</li><li>SR Chiefs
</li><li>SR Hurricanes
</li><li>SR Crusaders
</li><li>SR Highlanders
</li><li>AP Bath
</li><li>AP Bristol
</li><li>AP Exeter Chiefs
</li><li>AP Gloucester
</li><li>AP Harlequins
</li><li>AP Leicester Tigers
</li><li>AP Newcastle Falcons
</li><li>AP Northampton Saints
</li><li>AP Sale Sharks
</li><li>AP Saracens
</li><li>AP Wasps
</li><li>AP Worcester Warriors
</li><li>Pro12 Benetton Treviso
</li><li>Pro12 Cardiff Blues
</li><li>Pro12 Connacht
</li><li>Pro12 Edinburgh
</li><li>Pro12 Glasgow Warriors
</li><li>Pro12 Leinster
</li><li>Pro12 Munster
</li><li>Pro12 Newport Gwent Dragons
</li><li>Pro12 Ospreys
</li><li>Pro12 Scarlets
</li><li>Pro12 Ulster
</li><li>Pro12 Zebre
</li><li>Top14 Aviron Bayonnais
</li><li>Top14 Union Bordeaux Bègles
</li><li>Top14 CA Brive
</li><li>Top14 Castres Olympique
</li><li>Top14 ASM Clermont Auvergne
</li><li>Top14 FC Grenoble
</li><li>Top14 Lyon OU
</li><li>Top14 Montpellier Hérault Rugby
</li><li>Top14 Section Paloise
</li><li>Top14 Racing 92
</li><li>Top14 Stade Rochelais
</li><li>Top14 Stade Français Paris
</li><li>Top14 RC Toulonnais
</li><li>Top14 Stade Toulousain
</li><li>Mitre10 Canterbury
</li></ol></div>
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And for Q3:

• There are *some* games between teams in different comps, e.g. Chiefs vs Wales during the tour.
• There might be some stats that aren't very dependent on who the other team is. I can't think what, if anything, will be reliable except maybe kicking percentages. Scrum force measured for training? something purely biometric?
• Players that play for 2+ different teams at different levels (virtually every top international) are probably a good yardstick. They should make a bigger impact in the lower level competition, and we can use that to judge *how much* of a step down it is.

Mostly, I don't know where to start, except ranking teams I like above everyone else

 

[SelimNiai]

This'll go well.....