Tonga jump to 9th in World Rankings

[IKALETAHI]

Awesome stuff highest Ranking ever for Tonga. Pacific Island rugby is looking very strong for the future. With all the Polynesian kids dominiating both Rugby Union and Rugby league at developement levels in both New Zealand and Australia the future is looking bright.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/5728970/Tonga-up-rugby-rankings-after-France-upset

 

[Black Heart]

The trouble will be for the PI nations to develop their game at home. Most of the players are brought up through the New Zealand/ Australia systems.

 

[IKALETAHI]

They cant all play for the ALL BLACKS the amount of Polynesians coming through both systems should ensure we get some of them back. Tongas most promisiing High school rugby players get Scholarships to NZ, Aus, and Japan(Konrad Hurrell for the warriors captained Tongas Schoolboys before getting an offer from NZ). with our local talent getting cotracts overseas after a season with the national team. So we might have to rely on overseased based players.

 

[hitman51]

Lol how does the irb rankings work is this a stitch up against samoa lmao how does tonga leap frog samoa by beating france? do you get more points by beating a team higher than you in a world cup year?. Please someone explain samoa has been a thorn in the irbs butt in the lass few days is this a stitch up against them.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Lol how does the irb rankings work is this a stitch up against samoa lmao how does tonga leap frog samoa by beating france? do you get more points by beating a team higher than you in a world cup year?. Please someone explain samoa has been a thorn in the irbs butt in the lass few days is this a stitch up against them.

Not a stitch-up Hitman but mathematical equations. Yes, you get more points for beating teams higher than you and the higher the greater the points on offer for the lower ranked team. In contrast top teams get nearly nothing for beating lower ranked teams and if two teams are close in rankings they might swap out if the points of their rating are close enough. Other variables that effect the amount of points on offer is home ground advantage IE the Springbokke will get more for beating NZ in NZ than beating them at home and also margin IE NZ will get more points from beating SA by 15 or more than they would by beating them by less. The 15 point margin is a set margin.

Added to that the points on offer are doubled at the world cup to make for greater drama, reward smaller teams who cause upsets and just an incenticve and to reflect the importance of the world cup as rugby's showpiece. So IMO Tonga were responsible for a massive upset and thoroughly deserve their reward in a rise in the rankings. If that is not truely reflective you can expect the rankings to settle into a truer reflection over time as Samoa and other teams might beat Tonga and rise again. I would suggest you rather look at these rankings over a period of time rather than an absolute reflection at any given time.