Fiji tumbles in IRB World Rankings after surprise defeat by Tonga – Rugby news
The IRB World Rankings 2011, on Tuesday, July 5, have revealed that Fiji is ranked 13th
this week amongst the other IRB member teams. The new ranking is a record low for Fiji, who was previously in the 10th spot, prior to their encounter against Tonga in the Pacific Nations Cup 2011.
This battle paved the way for Tonga to move up the hierarchy to acquire the 12th place from its former 16th rank. Tonga has gained its highest rank defeating Fiji in a 45-21 win at Lautoka, in the Pacific Nations Cup.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) releases a weekly world ranking, which lists down the current positions of member teams, with ratings spreading between 0 and 100.The top teams have their ratings accumulated above 90.
The IRB World Ranking is designed by employing the ‘Points Exchange' system, according to which the points scored by each team depends on the result of the match. In this system, points gained by one side are lost by the opposing in the match. Moreover,
the point calculation is based on the relative strengths of the opponent teams along with the added home advantage.
However, during the World Cup Finals, the points gained are doubled but the rest of the international matches do not face any deviation. Furthermore, the matches which are not full international ventures between two member countries do not influence the
points at all for either of the teams.
The recently release ranking has a seen several other teams move about the ladder. Canada has fallen down from the 15th spot to take up the 16th rank in the IRB rankings released this Tuesday. Georgia has remained consistent at its
rank of 14, which is the same as last weeks.
With Samoa’s 34-13 win against Japan, it is now ranked amongst the top ten in the IRB World Ranking with a one spot leap upwards. Japan has declined two spots down to be ranked 15th from its previously held 13th spot, leaving Italy
on the 11th spot. Fiji will be facing Samoa in the second round of the Pacific Cup 2011 on the following Saturday, July 9.
The top nine teams in the IRB rankings break-down have retained their status from last weeks’ update, where New Zealand continues to boast the leading position, with Australia, South Africa, Ireland and England holding the second, third, fourth and fifth
places respectively.
With France, Wales, Argentina and Scotland following the top five, they also have remained unchanged since last week. Those below Canada, including; USA, Romania, Russia, Namibia and others have also retained their spot in the IRB rankings.
Fiji has had the misfortune of having the largest negative change this week in the rankings.
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