curlymac says...

@leinsterblue- i never even thought about summer rugby would bring the calendar together which would be a huge bonus, i was only thinking of the players skill levels. What about just playing junior and school rugby in summer, there would be less snow/ rain affected matches, and all the football kids could play as well.

Tyler_Durden- Your right south island winters can be horrible but that only leads to New Zealand having a balanced set of skills, they can run and play wet weather rugby. Making it harder to be caught napping like the Australians in their game against Scotland.

Weather affecting the types of skills players have cant be denied, game plans have always revolved around where the winds blowing, how moist the ball is, if the grounds a bog. if you play in the same conditions week after week you grow a limited skill set.

NZ and Aus are some of the best sportsmen in the world per capita and part of that is because of their outdoor lifestyle due to their mild climates.

Posted 12:06 12th June 2012

Tyler_Durden says...

Curlymac - there is absolutely nothing "mild' about an NZ winter!! Particularly in the South Island. It's like Scotland's winters, only damper.

The NZ teams get around this weather business by being really good at Rugby. Those in the North are, of course, free to try this approach but seem disinterested and would prefer to lumber about blaming rain and whatnot.

Posted 09:56 12th June 2012

welshmac says...

If Wales and England both lose again this weekend by less than 15 points, will England drop to 5th?

Posted 07:49 12th June 2012

curlymac says...

The difference between north and south teams comes from one thing, weather.

New Zealand, Australia and south Africa all have mild winters compared to the north and therefore play on nice firm grounds from a young age. this leads to greater, field vision, ball skills and understanding of how to score tries.

The northern teams possess these skills but in far smaller amounts. They look confused when running with the ball, and will mishandle the ball at try scoring opportunities.

The easiest way to fix this is play rugby in summer. Better weather, more running rugby, better skills, less competition from football. Rugby would improve.

Only then will northern teams compete equally. And you might be able to dethrone the SANZAR teams.

Posted 05:57 12th June 2012

TVaddict says...

@kinsman

You are correct.

Indeed, the biggest amount of ranking points it's possible to gain in one match I believe is 3.5.

Anyway, if England beat South Africa I think they'll take 3rd place. So one victory would make a difference.

Posted 23:12 11th June 2012

Dangerous says...

But more importantly... Why did Slovenia forfeit?

Posted 21:23 11th June 2012

kinsman says...

In fact further to this, NZ cannot pickup points playing at home against anyone except for Australia and South Africa and even beating the 2nd ranked Australian team by 40 points would only see a rating points exchange of about 0.3. Beating SA in NZ by 40 points would provide so little change as to be almost unnoticed.

Ireland however could jump to 6th place and overtake France with a victory by 15 or more points...

Posted 17:08 11th June 2012

JayStarr says...

Lol... You're writing this as if you actually expected the SH teams to move down.

It takes more than one win over NZ, SA or AUS to get to the top of the table you know... You need to consistently be better than them. And unless the NH start playing against SH opposition on a more regular basis (including club/franchise rugby), they'll never improve enough to catch up and pass them.

Posted 16:56 11th June 2012

BokAvenger says...

Every year we hear the same nonsense from the NH about how Super Rugby is basketball and how NH rugby is more physical, more structured and better at the set piece. And then every year the SH smashes the NH teams and no one up north ever admits that they got it compeltely and utterly wrong.

Posted 16:12 11th June 2012