World Rankings - Number 5

[carlnz]

With so much debate over the rankings, lets do our own International Would Rankings.

1-4 are pretty much sweet with Eng NZ France and Aus filling this postions....so lets start with 5 and work our way down, and after 4 days of the poll the winning nation will be rewarded with that postion on our table.

 

[DIEHARD]

I would say PNG.

 

[Ari Gold]

i'd say Ireland, they performed very well in the European Nations Cup, and also PNG got hammered by the Australian invitational team...

 

[ouwet]

Lebanon!

 

[Moffo]

Wales are better than PNG

 

[SP]

out of Lebanon and Wales for me

 

[Big Bunny]

Ireland. They made the Euro final against England and they beat Wales. You can't rank a team based on their potential best lineup, it has to be on their current results and the players that they are actually using. In that case Lebanon and PNG would do it very tough against the Irish.

 

[bender]

Ireland. They made the Euro final against England and they beat Wales. You can't rank a team based on their potential best lineup, it has to be on their current results and the players that they are actually using. In that case Lebanon and PNG would do it very tough against the Irish.

I have to be honest, i cant see how France could possibly make number 4 on the strenght of two close losses. Wales finished 4th in both recent world cups and lead australia also for 2/4 of their world cup game. PNG consistently beat france, as do Lebanon. France might have more depth and a better home based competition but they are not the 4th best side in the world. Hopefullyby World cup time they will be.

 

[JK]

Ireland.

(France's top team are not beaten by Lebanon)

 

[Big Bunny]

I have to be honest, i cant see how France could possibly make number 4 on the strenght of two close losses. Wales finished 4th in both recent world cups and lead australia also for 2/4 of their world cup game. PNG consistently beat france, as do Lebanon. France might have more depth and a better home based competition but they are not the 4th best side in the world. Hopefullyby World cup time they will be.

The team that France send to Lebanon is a B side, mostly made up of up and coming players. Also Lebanon no longer fields its strongest side, instead choosing to go with a mixture of both Aussie and domestic players. Wales finished 4th in the World Cup with a stack of quality players, guys who will never be pulling the scarlet jersey on again either through always being injured or being retired. PNG do beat France but realistically when are they next going to be fielding their full strength team? I'd put my money on 2007-2008.

You simply cannot rate teams based on potential over their real world efforts.

 

[carlnz]

Common guys!! Hence why i thought of doing these polls so their would be no more arguments on the rankings!! You only get one vote so choose wisely!

Untill their is a proper International calender established...we will never see a full strength team against another....look at the kiwis this year, and Aussie last year!!

France deserve to be at 4 as the amount go good results in the last 3 years aginst both the Kiwis and Roos....the World Cup was four years ago......sure they dont put their full strength in the Euro or Med cups but they want to develop their players and good on them

 

[Moffo]

Cunningham alone would carve up the other teams

Come on, lets be honest here

 

[bender]

The team that France send to Lebanon is a B side, mostly made up of up and coming players. Also Lebanon no longer fields its strongest side, instead choosing to go with a mixture of both Aussie and domestic players. Wales finished 4th in the World Cup with a stack of quality players, guys who will never be pulling the scarlet jersey on again either through always being injured or being retired. PNG do beat France but realistically when are they next going to be fielding their full strength team? I'd put my money on 2007-2008.


You simply cannot rate teams based on potential over their real world efforts.

While the points that you make are valid, I dont see what is in France's results to suggest that they are the 4th best side in the world just because they ran Australia a lot closer than anyone has for a while. The French side that lost to Lebanon might not have been full strength but it certainly wasnt all that far off it. SAme with Lebanon. You say you cant judge a side on potential over real world efforts (which i agree with) but then you go and put France at 4 which can only be on potential. At the World Cup they have been beaten each time by Wales. You say wales are no longer the same team and the world cup was too far away, perhaps fair enough.

But France were beaten by Lebanon for the past few years at nearly every game and 4 years ago were actually beaten by a full strenght Italy. You explain this by saying that both sides were understrength so the games dont count. But at full strength France were beaten by afull strength PNG which you say cant count because PNG dont play at full strength often enough. No matter which criteria you use, France definitely dont make it all the way to number 4, Unless you want to rank on the basis of domestic competion standard, and even that is debatable and doubtful. Maybe financial clout.

 

[carlnz]

No take a look at Frances last 2 games against Australia and last three against the Kiwis!!

2001 NZ 36 France 0
2002 NZ 36 France 10
2004 NZ 24 France 20

2002 NZ 50 Wales 22

 

[carlnz]

Or France Selection Australia 2003 34-10, same year Wales 4 Australia 74

 

[bender]

No take a look at Frances last 2 games against Australia and last three against the Kiwis!!

2001 NZ 36 France 0
2002 NZ 36 France 10
2004 NZ 24 France 20

2002 NZ 50 Wales 22

Three solid losses. The last one admittedly being close. The NZ side that beat Wales was white hot at the time, I would back them to beat the New Zealand, English and and possibly even Australian sides from the 2004 tri series. You cant judge sides by how close they got to different sides, only by their results against other sides or by their victories against other sides. Just because South Sydney got Closer to beating the Bulldogs than the Broncos did (i cant be bothered looking up results but youll get the point) does not mean that South Sydney rate better than the Broncos.

Those Results are interesting and i will be interested to see how highly you rank USA. what are the last 3 results for Matches between:

France v Wales
France v Ireland
France V Scotland
France V PNG
France v Fiji
France v Lebanon
France v Italy

IMO, before France can be ranked ahead of these nations, they need to establish either a win over these nations, or at the very least a win over some other nation that ranks higher than those nations.

 

[disco1]

I dont see what is in France's results to suggest that they are the 4th best side in the world just because they ran Australia a lot closer than anyone has for a while.

Right on, I just wish everyone would drop the hype, France hasn't done anything for years then all of a sudden they are 4th in the world!!! What next? USA 5th? Serbia 6th? Holland 7th? The only nations worthy of being 4th,5th or 6th are from

Wales
PNG
Ireland

Theses are the only nations apart from the top 3 that have always been competitive.

 

[carlnz]

If PNG or Lebanon ranked four..then why arent they getting invited to the Tri Nations?? Same with Wales an Irleand...why dont they brake up GB??

While France hardly ever put their strongest team on the field against the minow teams...they have since the World Cup but in strong preformences against GB, AUS and NZ....

How many tournments do France partake in??

Victory Cup
Euro Cup
Med Cup

Three!!! How many other International teams do this?? France have beaten Ireland in their last three matches....win one lost one against PNG in PNG......

PNG got a hiding this year by Australia
Wales got a hiding last year and have asked not to play the big guns for three years..
Ireland...well the only strong team they have ever played is England...

Also on Lebanon, who else do they play outside France B team ( I do amit France sent their strongest team one time and get beaten) Morocco and Serbia!! I know they wear meant to play FIJI this year but it never happened...they played well against the Kiwis in the World Cup...

Also the fact everyone is voting for PNG cuts Wales and Ireland out as being fourth...

 

[disco1]

Wales got a hiding last year and have asked not to play the big guns for three years..

This was for a very good reason, in Wales we currently have a big push on youth development and these are our stars of the future. Playing them against Oz of NZ would ruin the hard work that has gone it to the plans. However, if Wales did field a team of fit players including our ESL players we would beat Ireland, PNG, lebanese, France, Russia and we have proved it before when it counts. Looks at our World Cup results!!!

 

[In-goal]

I went with Ireland on the back of there Euro nations performance.