Welcome to the inaugural 10 Nations International Rugby Championship! This is a new initiative by me to provide a round robin ranking of the top ten teams in the world, as opposed to the World Cup which is pool and knockout-based.
The tournament will wrap up at the completion of the year’s Test matches, at which point the team on the top of the table will be declared the winner and sent a certificate to that effect and two packets of Iced VoVos (or homebrand alternative) for the players and coaching staff to share.
Second place gets a certificate and one packet of Milk Arrowroots.
No doubt at this point you will all be a bit surprised to find we are already more than halfway through the 2013 tournament.
Consisting of games played under the Six Nations, June Tests, Rugby Championship and November end of year tours, the idea out of all of this is most teams will play most other teams from the top ten at some point throughout the year.
Unfortunately, scheduling did not allow every nation to play each other throughout the 2013 year/tournament, a situation which is unlikely to change.
Therefore I have devised a brilliant scheme. This involves the following points allocation:
Real world win – 5 points.
Real world draw – 3 points.
Real world Loss – 1 point.
Simulated win – 4 points.
Simulated draw – 2 points (very unlikely).
Simulated loss – 0 points.
Obviously this involves simulating the matches that won’t be played and allocating points accordingly.
The winner of these simulated matches will be decided by whoever has the most favourable adjusted points differential of the two, with the adjusted points differential being simply the teams’ points differential with adjustment factors added for each real world opponent played (with higher factors for higher ranked nations).
Full details can be found on the website below.
The system is designed to add benefit for teams to keep playing well for every minute of every match right up until the end, as well as reasonable benefit for teams playing real world matches against stronger nations
Currently the table stands as follows. Please note this includes the current results of the simulated matches, which will very possibly change as the November games unfold.
1. South Africa – 33 points
2. New Zealand – 32
3. England – 25
4. Wales – 20
5. Samoa – 18
6. Ireland – 14
7. Italy – 14
8. Australia – 11
9. France – 11
10. Argentina – 4
(The expanded table with full details can be found on the 10 Nations website, where I’ll be keeping details relatively up to date.)
Current points of note are the high position of Samoa and the low position of Australia and France.
Samoa can thank its relatively strong showing in the June tournament in South Africa, getting a good win over Italy and restricting the damage against South Africa, giving them better adjusted differential than say Australia, who have only had matches against three nations, two of whom are the top two.
We can expect a benefit to come Australia’s way through the next month, with a number of real world matches to yield them points and an expected boost to their adjusted differential from the adjustment factors gained just by playing these matches.
Samoa, on the other hand, has only one more real world match to play and so have very few additional points available to them.
However they are reasonably well ahead in their simulated matches (excepting the Australia match) and therefore are reasonably well placed to not slide too far down the ladder, perhaps dropping below Australia as well as Ireland, who also should see the benefits of playing the real world matches start to show.
Lastly, France is basically paying the price for having a terrible year so far and, although instinct says they should be higher than ninth in the world, you can’t argue with results
They have really stunk the place up thus far and will find it hard to climb back.
I’m planning on doing some small updates along the way perhaps each week, assuming I don’t get tarred and feathered for this first one.
soapit
Guest
they might have to turn tradition on its head and dip the vovos in the beer.
soapit
Guest
all you say is true mate but inevitably in any tournament there are games where if you perform you get an advantage. hopefully it evens out (like for arg they get advantage for one and disavntage for another). also the fact i'll be letting the know beforehand from here on in should give them enough notice to make it fair. remember its a tournament not an official ranking after all. though for the record as the earlier games were done in hindsight i did try and pick one with the average score for the best of three and give everyone a good share of good scorelines for the best of 2;s, if anything i disadvantaged aus when in doubt to avoid accusations of bias. and i'm hoping the biscuits wont just get stuffed in the trophy cabinet to go stale. two packets should be enough for everyone to eat.
js-nz
Guest
I can understand your thinking, but picking different games can change the results a lot, you will have constant contention. For example, by choosing the SA vs ARG Bloemfontein 73-13 game favors SA's points differential and hurts ARG. By picking the AUS vs ARG Perth 14-13 game favors ARG's points differential and hurts AUS's. By picking different results you will have a much different standing. However as a bit of lighthearted entertainment I think it's great that you have created another trophy/biscuits for the ABs to compete for. The trophy cabinet is looking a little bare.
js-nz
Guest
The only issue I have with Vovos being the prize is: Where will the All Blacks put the beer?
Harry Jones
Guest
Just keep SA at no. 1 and you'll be guaranteed subscribers to your system. :)
Garth
Guest
And what, in God's name, is a vovo?
soapit
Guest
seems simpler than the ranking formula to me (never got around to understanding that one myself) but thats cool, everyone has their limits. all i can suggest is have a look at the site before you give up cos its too difficult. interesting sign off there btw (eff off, smiley face)
mace 22
Guest
Sorry soapit but I can't get my head around the ranking formula and you want to chuck this at me. %&$#@ off. :-)
Matilda
Guest
Wait.....is this system based on the same system that was used for "Quade is a better tackler than McCaw"?
soapit
Guest
try a vovo and you shall have your answer
soapit
Guest
nah, although fictional its still supposedly a tournament and that average score mechanic isnt really suited to a tournament as for large chunks of the tournament thered be nothing riding on the actual win/loss of any match. cant think of any real tournament that uses it better to have one match selected where if you win you get the points imo. might be worth adding a comment on this to the faq at some point though.
DubaiKiwi
Guest
All i can say about this is why is second prize the arrowroots! Love em havent had them in years.
Antony
Guest
Where there are multiple games, you should probably take an average of the scores.
Vincent
Guest
Why don't you add a bonus point system for countries that start with S, say 3 BPs for a win, 2 for a draw and 1 for a loss. That should improve the accuracy of your ratings system.
Nobrain
Guest
What do you think if there is an international window to be played once every month. We can have all nations to play each other every year and it will take 9 months of scheduled internationals to see which team is the winner. You will have world class matches every month and forget about the 6 nation and RCH. We can forget about the simulated games and have the real staff.
soapit
Guest
actually second look they only trail by 1. i think you will be ok TM, if they lose a match on tour will be interesting what the system throws up.
soapit
Guest
all decided only after the match has finished.
js-nz
Guest
TM can't hear you, he is away fetching the tar...
soapit
Guest
yes it does have that possibility. i'm doing it that way so we dont have 12 or so different matches all counting towards it (some needing averages some without) plus the sims, thought it was complicated enough as it was and better to just stick to 'this is the game against x that counts towards 10n' model.
soapit
Guest
full table has real world games played in it which has SA at 5 and NZ at 4 (ie NZ have a game in hand and only trail by 2, dont panic just yet)