World rankings - so many nations playing rugby??

1(1)NEW ZEALAND91.432

(2)AUSTRALIA87.993

(3)SOUTH AFRICA84.344

(4)ENGLAND83.625

(5)WALES83.326

(6)FRANCE81.917

(7)ARGENTINA80.288

(8)IRELAND79.859

(9)TONGA76.6310

(10)SAMOA75.8111

(11)ITALY74.1712

(12)SCOTLAND73.8613

(13)CANADA72.9214

(14)JAPAN70.4515

(15)GEORGIA70.2616

(16)FIJI68.7817

(17)USA65.6318

(18)ROMANIA63.8119

(19)SPAIN62.5720

(20)NAMIBIA61.2421

(21)URUGUAY60.4722(22)RUSSIA60.1223(23)CHL59.5224(24)BELGIUM59.1725(25)PORTUGAL57.7526(26)HONG KONG56.5127(27)MOROCCO56.1328(28)POLAND54.5129(29)UKRAINE53.9530(30)KAZAKHSTAN53.6231(31)KOREA53.3632(32)GERMANY53.3333(34) ZIMBABWE52.4034(35) BRAZIL51.5735(36) SWEDEN51.4636(37) TUNISIA51.3437(33) MOLDOVA51.2838(38)KENYA50.4939(39)CZECH REPUBLIC50.1640(40)LITHUANIA50.0141(41)PARAGUAY48.8442(45) NETHERLANDS48.3443(42) MALTA47.9344(43) UGANDA47.6945(44) IVORY COAST47.5246(46)SRI LANKA47.0347(47)PAPUA NEW GUINEA46.5548(48)BERMUDA45.9449(49)SWITZERLAND45.8850(50)TRINIDAD & TOBAGO45.8551(51)CROATIA45.8452(52)SINGAPORE45.6653(53)VENEZUELA45.3654(54)SENEGAL45.2455(55)COOK ISLANDS44.6156(56)MADAGASCAR44.3157(57)CHINESE TAIPEI43.6258(58)ANDORRA42.5659(59)GUYANA42.5460(60)DENMARK42.0461(61)ISRAEL42.0262(62)CHINA41.7863(63)MALAYSIA41.7564(64)PERU41.6465(65)THAILAND41.4666(66)SERBIA41.3167(78) BARBADOS41.1168(68)LATVIA40.7269(69)SOLOMON ISLANDS40.7070(70)MEXICO40.5071(71)NIUE ISLANDS40.4572(72)PAKISTAN40.0072(72)PHILIPPINES40.0074(67) CAYMAN39.9975(74) ZAMBIA39.9476(75) COLOMBIA39.5977(77)INDIA39.1978(79) CAMEROON38.3379(80) SLOVENIA38.3080(81) AUSTRIA38.1581(82) HUNGARY37.5082(83) BULGARIA37.3683(76) ST. VINCENT & THE GRENADINES37.3284(90) JAMAICA37.0885(84) SWAZILAND36.6886(85) BOTSWANA36.6887(86) BAHAMAS36.3388(87) TAHITI36.2589(88) GUAM36.2490(89) BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA36.1891(91)NIGERIA35.2992(92)MONACO35.1793(93)NORWAY34.8194(94)VANUATU33.4595(95)LUXEMBOURG32.2696(96)FINLAND27.70

Unfortunately for Canada the Churchill cup is now gone.

We are having a tour though this year playing Italy, Georgia, and the USA. I will be going to the Georgia game.

Also, we have to qualify for the  2015 rwc. So we will have a couple of more games against USA. The georgian, and Italy games are quality tests for us, but we need to figure out how to play more, and better teams if we ever want to crack the top 10.

How big is rugby in Canada? 

Not very big. Hockey is King, then Baseball. After that it's a whole bunch of sports like American Football, Basketball, soccer, etc. I'd  say Rugby is behind  all of those sports in popularity. Depending on where you live though in the Country really dictates what sports are popular. It's a massive country. The province I'm from (BC) rugby is fairly popular because of our mild climate. It's probably the most popular in my province, but still behind the major north american sports. A lot of our national team comes from this province.

We like our rugby, just not a lot of money, and interest in it.  We are ranked 13th. Just think if we put a little effort into it how much better we could be.

To put it into perspective, I have to spend $17 a month for the ONE station that plays all the rugby games. Also, most of the games are recorded and played at a later time due to all the EPL, and other soccer games on.

Honestly canrugby, I think that there are 3 nations in the world that, if they put some money and effort in it could crack the top ten easily. However the money and effort needs to be put in, the game needs to be groomed. Those nations are Canada, USA and Russia. Unfortunately there are other sports that are King and sponsors want visibility. So they need to start at grassroots level. The IRB don't seem to see the market here, they keep on pushing Japan and the Islands. I understand that these countries have the player potential etc, however finatial incentive has a ceiling here where the US Canada and russia have the potential to become big guns if they get the right support. Canada obviously has the Climate against that is another matter altogether though.

It's about time you yarepoies posted something intelligent. I can see Samoa becoming more of a force , Fiji should be higher as well but the thing to remember is the Kiwis are the World Champions at Rugby Union and  Rugby League ,Sevens- just natural footballers

Our friend brycy clearly doesn't understand economics.

Brycy Russie, USA and Canada could be big rugby markets. The IRB are spending money on the Islanders only to have nz looting their efforts. When things go wrong one can so often trace it back to the nzders!!

The Islanders should form one team and form part of the 5 SH nations comp? Islanders should play for Islander sides not nz franchises etc. Cut off the looting I say.  That is what the IRB should work towards. A rationalisation of competitions. 

IRB seems pretty ineffective. Anybody know how many nzders are on board running things there?

 Thanks can for that take on Canadian rugby. Have you played the great game?

Yes, I do play. I've played since High school. Was a prop then, now in my leaner later years I am a Flanker.

EK - you are correct.. It is all about popularity and sponsorship. The USA could be absolutely awesome at rugby if they took 5% of their athletic talent, gave it the money, and put it into Rugby. But there's not a lot of interest in the sport, so no sponsorship money to be made, and we all know what that means.

I only know about Canada, but we have a fairly strong grassroots level here(especially in my province). The problem is is the ceiling is very low. Our "pro" leagues just aren't that good. Our players have to play elsewhere, and if they play in our leagues, it's just not good enough rugby compared to the world. I believe our National team has to play more games in a year against tougher opponents to boost that level of play because it won't happen for them playing seperately all over the world, and in not so good Canadian Leagues.

If we had tournaments every year like the 4 nations, 6 nations, it would create more support, popularity, and make us much stronger. We did have the Churchill cup, but that has been taken away. All we have now is the USA to play, and 1 tour a year from a couple of European teams. It would be nice to play some more games for our players.

I don't know how we get involved, or get a tournament started. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the IRB.

 Our S15 sides should play Canada pre season

That would be awesome! I don't think our team would mind at all travelling to SA to play the teams. It would be very beneficial.

It would be extremely benefitial for Canadian, US rugby if they coulf play our S15 sides pre season however not so sure if the S15 sides will fall for it..........

The best thing that can happen to Canadian and Us rugby is if they have a yearly competition, I was unaware of the fact that the IRB has put a stop to the Churchill cup, that is sad, as not only did the North American teams benefit from that but England as well as it build their backup. Maybe Canada, USA, Uruguay and Chili could create a new America's cup there. I think Argentina would have been good there however it might be better for Argentina to send a B team to this competition as they deserve to be in the premier Southern Hemisphere competition. This will at least give them game time on a more regular basis. Then each of those nations can have a once of trditional tour to one of the Top tier countries per year. This can be the highlight of the calender. Honestly it is the IRB's responsibility to get these nations gametime against top tier competition, even if they lose. And it is another way to bring back the traditional tour. This would mean that the touring side will get gametime against club/provinces as well as 3 tests.

Ahh but we can only whish, that the suits upstairs start seeing the long term financila benefits of building the game like this Instead of the short term financial benefits of emptying the pockets of the current situation.