From 3 January to 27 November, the Azzurri went from 70.51 points to 75.95, with an increase of 5.44. France was second with +4.48, Ireland third with +4.10. The secrets of the calculation mechanism: away victories and those against teams with a much higher score count above all. Only from the triumph in Wales a leap of two points
@slam it
In the 2022 calendar year, Italy is the national team that has grown the most in the World Rugby ranking, the ranking that the world rugby government draws up weekly on the basis of test match results. On 3 January 2022, the Azzurri had 70.51 points; in the recently released ranking, compiled on the basis of the results of the last test weekend of the winter window, Italy is at 75.95, with an increase of 5.44 points over the calendar year; in second place is France, which rose by 4.48 points (from 85.53 to 90.01), while in third place is Ireland, which rose by 4.10 (from 86.53 to 90.63) . The Greens have gone from fourth to first place in the ranking, the Les Bleus from fifth to second, the blues from 14th to 12th.
How does it work
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Although it has a limited function – basically it serves to set the draw for the groups for the World Cups – the ranking is a fairly credible thermometer on the state of health. The calculation and scoring mechanism is quite complicated. Without going into technicalities, suffice it to say that it is an “exchange” system, in which the winner earns points and the loser gives them. How many depends on a series of factors: the importance of the match (if it takes place within the World Cup it is worth more), the result, the margin of victory (the fact of winning with 15 or more points of discard) the position of the two teams in the ranking before the match, whether they play at home or not (away victories are heavier).
The journey of Italy
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In detail, Italy had started at 70.51 and after the first four rounds of the Six Nations (France-Italy 37-10, Italy-England 0-33, Ireland-Italy 57-6, Italy-Scotland 22-33) it had lost just 18 cents of a point, falling to 70.33. The victory against Wales on 19 March (21-22), away from home and against a team that at that moment had more than 10 points more (81.28), earned Italy two net points, from 70.33 at 72.33. In the summer, the two away victories against Portugal (31-38, +0.64) and above all against Romania (13-45, +1.05) also “made it” while the defeat in Georgia, however heavy on a political level and of the image, it took only 73 cents away from Italy. The three matches, in general, produced minor changes because they were played against teams with similar scores. In November Padova’s victory against Samoa (49-17) yielded 0.42, while Florence’s historic success against Australia (28-27) yielded 1.44 points. Finally, the defeat against world champions South Africa, in Genoa, heavy in scoring (21-63) but somehow “obvious” by the parameters of the ranking, which subtracted only 20 cents from the Azzurri’s budget.
The other teams
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Among the other national teams to have grown in 2022, Tonga (+3.59), Samoa (+2.44) and Georgia (+1.57) stand out, while England (-4.17) is heavily negative ), Wales (-3.47), Australia (-2.12) and South Africa (-1.64); New Zealand was stable (+0.23).
So at the end of 2022
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The standings that will close the year:
1. Ireland 90.63;
2. France 90.01;
3. New Zealand 88.98;
4. South Africa 88.97;
5. England 83.66;
6. Australia 81.80;
7. Scotland 81.55;
8. Argentina 80.72;
9. Wales 78.09;
10. Japan 77.39;
11. Samoa 76.03;
12. ITALY 75.95;
13. Georgia 75.19;
14. Fiji 74.84;
15. Tonga 71.21.
November 28th – 6.59pm
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