Lote's wobbles may open spot

[BLR]

Number 3 in the world? Yep, we should fix that.

Remember when we used to win silverware?

[TOCC]

It's pretty easy to be number 3 considering the teams we've played over the past year.

Out of all the games we have played you could say that the only real challenges were:

1) South Africa in SA - we lost. They brought a 2nd rate team here for the return match, so was not much of a comparison.

2) New Zealand here - we won.

3) New Zealand in NZ - we lost. Could have won the tri-nations but blew it.

4) Wales - World Cup, we won. Come to think of it, didn't Wales rest most of their players for this match in preparation for their deciding match against Fiji??? Should this really count as a real challenge then???

5) England - World Cup, we lost.

6) Ireland here, we won. Granted it was the last game for all the Ireland players at the end of a long season. But let's give the Wallabies credit, it isn't often the current team beats a full strength top 10 team.

Who else have we played in the past year: Fiji x 2, Wales (C grade team) x 2, South Africa 2nd team, Canada, Japan, France B team, anyone else???

So it's pretty easy getting to the top of the rankings when you play 2nd grade teams all the time.

as of the 23rd June Australia were still 4th in the world, Argentina, NZ and RSA are ahead of us..

as for your comment about it being easy to climb the rankings by playingn 2nd grade teams, well the IRB ranking system doesnt exactly work like that. Australia defeating france on the weekend would have done very little for our world ranking, though Argentina did lose to Italy so they will probably drop below Australia.

the wins against Canada, Japan and Fiji would have had no effect on the Wallabies world ranking, to put it in perspective, if Argentina beat Italy on the weekend they would have received no points for that match since they are ranked so far apart.

[Burgs]

Beating France actually did nothing for our ranking, only get points for beating higher teams when you play at home and a small margin for lower teams away.
You are however correct that we will now be #3 thanks to Italy's slender win taking valuable points of los Pumas.
The only way for us now to climb higher than third is to beat South Africa and New Zealand.
Just waiting for the new rankings to be posted and I'll put them up here.

[Moses]

just cause the IRB haven't updated their website does not make it so

Argentina's new ranking should be around 83.53, Australia should move up to 84.56

[Burgs]

Talking to me Moses?
I'm saying they are now #3???

[TOCC]

Beating France actually did nothing for our ranking, only get points for beating higher teams when you play at home and a small margin for lower teams away.
You are however correct that we will now be #3 thanks to Italy's slender win taking valuable points of los Pumas.
The only way for us now to climb higher than third is to beat South Africa and New Zealand.
Just waiting for the new rankings to be posted and I'll put them up here.

you still get points for beating lower teams at home, they factor in the home advantage, but you can still get points.

[jargan83]

i remember when we won silverware.........
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[Swee_82]

I remember when they had that trailer they dragged around to the Royal Show (in Sydney at least, don't know if it came to Perth) where you could see the World Cup, and the Bledisloe, and the Cook Cup, and a bunch of other trophies. While 3rd mightn't sound so bad Moses, it's been a long time since we've scaled those heights too.

[laura]

'Sif they would bring that to Perth...

[Swee_82]

You never know

[jargan83]

pfffft you know the ARU doesn't think about anywhere outside Sydney and Brisbane
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[robyn <3]

drew is perfectly fit. had a megatastic game against fiji on the weekend, playing fullback. hes the bomb. i know and accept that i am extremely biast, but he is really ready to go. i thought he played just as well if not better than digby on sunday. he outclasses two-dads any day of the week, and turner is some competition, but drew is more dangerous with the ball. had a better game that turner on the w/e. and he only missed out on the wallabies spot because of injury.

and if deans did say that... i think i might have a large wooden spoon in my kitchen to beat some sense into him!!!

[GIGS20]

Number 3 in the world? Yep, we should fix that.

Bloody oath we should....For my money number three is a travesty.

If you're happy with that Mose, I can understand why you're fine with the NSW front row being picked. I for one won't be satisfied until we're back at number 1 with daylight second!

[gustafsl]

as for your comment about it being easy to climb the rankings by playingn 2nd grade teams, well the IRB ranking system doesnt exactly work like that. Australia defeating france on the weekend would have done very little for our world ranking, though Argentina did lose to Italy so they will probably drop below Australia.

the wins against Canada, Japan and Fiji would have had no effect on the Wallabies world ranking, to put it in perspective, if Argentina beat Italy on the weekend they would have received no points for that match since they are ranked so far apart.

I'm quite familiar with how the rankings work. I know playing Canada, Fiji etc...would not have gotten us many points, if any.

Basically what I was trying to say is over the past year we haven't played too many full strength teams and beaten them.

The main thing is that the rankings don't compensate for beating a "2nd rate" team. So last year when we lost to South Africa we would have dropped a couple ranking points. But when they came here, with a 2nd rate team, and we beat them we probably would have got more points. Because we would have been lower ranked then them.

Obviously the Wallabies can only beat the teams on offer, it isn't their fault other teams don't play full strength. But over the past year and a bit we have seen that when other teams do play full strength we have a very hard time beating them. So I'd say that a ranking of 3rd/4th in the world is being quite generous.