Latest top 20 IRB Rankings

Top 20 on the IRB rankings (last week's position in brackets): 1(1) New Zealand 91.43 2(2) Australia 86.77 3(3) South Africa 85.47 4(5) Wales 82.54 5(4) England 82.49 6(7) Argentina 81.22 7(6) France 81.06 8(8) Ireland 79.85 9(9) Samoa 77.64 10(11) Scotland 76.56 11(10) Tonga 76.19 12(12) Italy 75.26 13(13) Canada 71.74 14(15) Fiji 69.21 15(14) Georgia 68.52 16(16) Japan 67.93 17(17) United States 67.38 18(18) Romania 64.54 19(21) Russia 62.05 20(19) Spain 61.63

argentina has gone past France moving up one position.

Wales have also moved up one position past England.

 Correcto. plus Samoa moved up past Scotland, canada moved up past Fiji and russia moved into the Top 20

FYI, the time the All Blacks have been ranked No1, is more then double the time ALL other nations have been No1.

IMO the IRB ranking system is a much better indicator as to who is the real rugby champions and not the RWC.
RWC comes around once every 4 years and the crown stays with u for 4 years no matter how u perform in between till the next RWC, while the IRB ranking system calculates EVERY test match played and works out who is the No1.

 Agreed Sasuke. This is where i like heynecke attempting to win every single game. We need to become that team.

Ek we can look forward with confidence to our return to our rightful position of number 1.

That will leave the young Oz side to battle it out with the declining kiwis for 2.

Then with the Argies improving, due to participation in 4 nations, the best the NH can hope for is a fifth place! hahahahahahahahahahaha 

Canada losing to Italy made them lose some points, but stayed at 13. This weekends game against Georgia will pretty huge in keeping that spot.

With a full healthy squad we can beat teams like Tonga and Samoa. I don't understand why we are so far behind them......I guess they play much more then we do.

How did Aus stay at 2 after losing to Scotland?

unsubstantiated confidence is still confidence i guess, :/

but theres some harsh realties with the Boks trying to reclaim the No1 ranking which the All Blacks have held for nearly 80% of its existence.

the Boks will need to beat the wallabies at least twice, something they have only done once in their last 7 attempts.
and they will need to beat the ABs twice, which includes one game in NZ. and since 2000, the Boks have only won twice in NZ both matches by 3 pts or less.
then theres counting on the All Blacks to lose their matche against other teams and im not talking about the 3 bledisloe games either, im talking about someone out side the top4, so that ABs can lose big ranking pts.

the amount of variables is too insanse, but the Boks need a near undefeated season and for both the All Blacks and wallabies to lose a lot of games outside of the 4nats this year and i cant see any of that happening.

I don't think Meyer is un-realistic. He understands that getting to number 1 in the world is going to take longer then this year. But to get to number one, you need to start somewhere, and now is a good time. I don't see the boks at number one at the end of this year, but I could see them close at the end of next, then the next year who knows.

At this stage a realistic expectation as Can and sasuke suggested would just be to close the gap. Win everything we can. We won't get there this year or next. maybe just just before the RWC 2015. if we do, but hey you eat an elephant bit by bit hey.

As far as I know the ratings take into account also the number of matches won by teams against higher rated teams.   That makes it very diifcult to predict the real situation going forward into the next two years.    I think we have to concentrate on moving up to number 2 in the first instance - we are near to Australia at present and I was not impressed by their Super 15 performances this year - there seems to be a decrease in their capacity at this stage and I think we have a good chance to beat them in the 4 Nations repeatedly - unless something drastic goes wrong.

Insofar as the All Blacks are concerned - I think they also this year did not really impressed me in the second test against Ireland - but it is diffiuclt to judge whether they are suffering from WC hangover - that could happen quite easily.    Carter is their key player - and he seems to be injury prone as times go by due to - I believe - the age factor.   

The outcome of the 4 Nations would be interesting this year and I think it will be a straight fight between the All Blacks and the Springboks for top honours if we can get over the present injury crisis ourselves.   My feeling is that this time around we have a better coach - but Meyer will have to keep his blood pressure down to survive.  :)

A better idea would be obtained also depending on the winner of the Super 15 competition and there it would be very interestoing to see which team is in the end going to have home games.    Of all the teams I think the Stormers has the easiest remaining games - the Chiefs the more difficult ones.   To my mind they would end up being the top two teams and that could influence the outcome of the semis and finals as well.

Too early to predict accurately what would happen going forward in this case. 

An explanation of the rankings:

www.irb.com/rankings/explain/index.html

Rankings calculator:

rugby.alfred-wallace.com/

Thanks windpomp.

Next year we take the number  1 spot. This year we show abs their furture  which is like it was pre isolation - Boks top side abs second. That is the natural order of things - was so for many decades.

Hope SARFU working hard on the ref issue, as it is all that can save the abs. They must have been shocked when BL got the boot.  So dumb they probably thought no one would notice! Bwahahahahahahahahaha

@ben10,

i love how u want nothing to do with actual facts, but ur addiction to posting rugby comments without any regard to the truth is a little worrying. may i suggest u start ur posts with, "once upon a time,,," and end it with ",,,happily ever after"??? that way it gives u more credibility when u try to distance urself from being labelled a dumbass.

while sporting sanctions against SA were around since the 60s, it was really left to the discretion of every nation as to how they chose to proceed. this finally came to an end when every nation buckled to the pressures of both the public and politics to exclude SA and their inbred apartheid laws.

however the Springboks still managed to play test matches regularly until the end of 1981 or to be exact the 20th sept 1981 the last test match they had that year.

on that note here are the winning percentages from the following eras,,,

first test match until 20/09/81,,,
All Blacks - 68.4%
Springboks - 63.0%

entire amateur era,,,
All Blacks - 71.2%
Springboks - 63.9%

professional era
All Blacks - 81.7%
Springboks - 62.7%

first test match until right now,,,
All Blacks - 75.3%
Springboks - 63.3%

as u can see ben10, there really has been no era in history where the All Blacks have not been the dominant force of world rugby and the scary thing is, that trend dosent just look like continuing, it looks like its improving.

GO ALL BLACKS!!!

 @sasuke - nice numbers, but  dominant? hardly. Most consistent - yes.

Can't call  a team dominant unless they dominate the championship (read: World Cup). Everything else between is just not on the same level......

@oimatey,

had this discussion earlier on in the article. IMO that the RWC dosent show u who the dominant national team in rugby are, its a tournament which comes around once every 4 years, the term world champions is only in name alone.

the IRB ranked No1 team is the most accurate way of portraying who is the most dominant team in the world, as it takes into account every test match being played, unlike the RWC which only includes the top tier teams and what they achieve ina two month period.

on that note, the All Blacks have been ranked No1 nearly 80% of the time. this is of course only since oct 2003 when it was first introduced, but the All Blacks are also the only country in the world to have a superior winning percentage against ALL its opponents and undefeated streaks against ireland and scotland, which as the Boks and wallabies can tell u is a pretty big achievement.

but each to their own, but IMO the All Blacks have and are the most dominant rugby team in the world.

I strongly and whole heartedly support the Bokke but, I believe that NZ has always been the dominant force in world rugby.

Even when we reached number 1 for a short periods they were right there on our backsides just waiting and pressurising us the whole time.

Aus and SA simply cannot match that pressure and apply it to them.

It is not just their natural talent throughout the ranks, but the leadership team and the coaching staff they employ.

The AB are the real deal (People really should acknowledge that) and we should be focussed hard on beating them at every encounter, if we ever hope to seen as champs.

I would gladly see SA finish this year beating the AB’s at very encounter and not maintain a 100% win record

@oimatey: They currently hold WC and Sevens title. They have 3 teams in top 6 for Super Rugby so far and the Championship and JWC is yet to be played.

If you are only going to base their dominance on their present achievements, I would reserve judgement until the season is over.