Comparing the Number of caps each 2011 RWC Squad, their most capped player to their IRB Rankings

1 1224 South Africa - Average Caps/Player 41 - Victor Matfield (107) 4th - 84.34

2 1139 New Zealand - Average Caps/Player 38 - Richie McCaw (100) 1st - 91.43

3 1068 Ireland - Average Caps/Player 36 - Brian O'Driscoll (113) 6th - 80.65

4 1038 Scotland - Average Caps/Player 35 - Chris Paterson (105) 10th - 76.20

5 1036 Georgia - Average Caps/Player 35 - Irakli Abuseridze (72) 14th - 71.09

6 1011 France - Average Caps/Player 34 - Damien Traille (83) 3rd - 84.70

7 1008 Italy - Average Caps/Player 34 - Andrea Lo Cicero (88) 12th - 73.99

8 896 England - Average Caps/Player 30 - Johnny Wilkinson (86) 5th - 81.58

9 865 Wales - Average Caps/Player 29 - Stephen Jones (100) 8th - 80.18

10 863 Romania - Average Caps/Player 29 - Cristian Petre (77) 18th - 63.98

11 820 Russia - Average Caps/Player 27 - Alexander Khrokin (67) 21st - 60.54

12 811 Australia - Average Caps/Player 27 - Nathan Sharpe (95) 2nd - 87.42

13 685 Japan - Average Caps/Player 23 - Hirotoki Onozawa (64) 15th - 70.45

14 582 Argentina - Average Caps/Player 19 - Mario Ledesma (78) 7th - 80.28

15 475 Canada - Average Caps/Player 16 - Ed Fairhurst (49) 13th - 72.92

16 444 United States - Average Caps/Player 15 - Mike MacDonald (62) 17th - 65.63

17 408 Fiji - Average Caps/Player 14 - Nicky Little (67) 16th - 68.78

18 397 Samoa - Average Caps/Player 13 - Mahonri Schwalger (36) 11th - 75.81

19 366 Namibia - Average Caps/Player 12 - Hugo Horn (31) 20th - 61.24

20 300 Tonga - Average Caps/Player 10 - Aleki Lutui, Ephraim Taukafa (30) 9th - 76.63

Maesteg have you morphed into biltong?

look at argentina and portugal in football- 2 best players by a mile- yet both teams quite of the pace at present when it comes to the best.

When you get past the tier one nations- its obvious that the best player will be way down in the rankings- due to the fact that rugby is so out of balance between tier 1 - and the other tier nations.

ok i will admit i am surprised that australias best player is behind a georgian,romanian and russian.

Top nations play more tests, so it's no surprise to see the top 9 IRB ranked countries in the top 12 of this list, but I don't think these nations are ranked higher because they have handed out more caps.

The most interesting thing I noticed about these apparently meaningless statistics is that Fiji, Samoa and tonga's squads had played so few matches despite being ranked so highly in the IRB standings.

Especially Samoa and tonga ranked 9th and 11th but holding up the base of the table.

i am losing it - you are talking about capoped players not rankings lol

Gatts wrote:Maesteg have you morphed into biltong?

I do find some stats interesting but I don't base all my thoughts on rugby solely on statistics.

This sort of caught my eye today, I am aware of the desparity between the wealthier nations and everyone else. I was also impressed with how the lower echelons played in the world cup.

I would like to see the game more competitive between more nations and the distribution of wealth increasingly shared far more among those who need it.

These stats raised some interesting thoughts in my mind.

How Samoa and tonga had done so well with such an in experienced squad. They also played some great rugby too. Something stats rarely describe.

Likewise how well such young Australian and welsh teams did with so few caps

i think the more important stat would be if we split the tiers up, and use an average cap not the most capped -we could take more from it!

For the average cap divide the first number (total caps) by 30. So South Africa are the highest on almost 41 caps per player, England are on just a smidge under 30 caps a player and Tonga are the lowest ranked still with just 10 caps a player.

To me it shows how importnat the chance to play in the European and Tri nations leagues is to the development of these players in the 15 man game, and how little their own Unions actually contribute to their success.

It just shows experience doesn't trump a referee.

biltongbek wrote:It just shows experience doesn't trump a referee.

Well done Bill, time to move on now mate...

not every thread can be about how unfairly refereed a game of rugby was. It was hardly a unique example.

maestegmafia wrote:

biltongbek wrote:It just shows experience doesn't trump a referee.

Well done Bill, time to move on now mate...

not every thread can be about how unfairly refereed a game of rugby was. It was hardly a unique example.

Sorry mate, but for me it is like playing word association games.

referee - quarter final - Bryce Lawrence
experience - quarter final - Bryce Lawrence
World cup - Quarter final - Bryce Lawrence
IRB rankings after the world cup - quarter final - Bryce Lawrence.

Be patient my friend my therapist said if all goes well this therapy will be over in 2015.

Dunno about that mate. Just because we got King Kong off our backs doesn't mean I'm not still filthy about Wayne Barnes.

Back to the sofa for both of us lol...

Hey lads Wales have had to put up with plenty of awful refereeing decisions too...

Stick to the therapy, it will work eventually.

Which team hasn't had to put up with bad refereeing.
I still 'remember' the Deans incident in 1905 and my ancestors hadn't even migrated to NZ then.