U15 Rugby: The U15 Rankings for this week: 13/04/2018

The U15 Rugby Rankings as of this week bears a striking resemblance to the First XV and U16’s Rankings with most of the same teams are occupying the leading positions.

This indicates that plenty of work has been put in by the various leading schools to ensure a continuous supply of quality players for several years to come. Good marketing and recruitment seems to be the key in guaranteeing that a consistent standard is achieved. Oakdale will also be happy with their elevated status amongst the top 5 teams thanks to some big victories they have achieved so far this year.

However we can expect some fluctuation on the rankings table as more results are submitted and more teams play the minimum 3 matches before inclusion on the rankings.

Please continue to send through your team’s results to editor@saschoolsports.co.za

The rankings are based on a formula that is very similar to the ICC cricket world rankings. Various factors are vital to the equation which include the strength of the opposition (teams are weighted), home/away status, margin of victory, margin of loss, actual goals scored in the matches, actual result (win/loss/draw) etc. Each of these factors earn the team a prescribed about of bonus points. There are also bonus points for a team that loses a match but gets close to winning, which is set at a 10 point margin.

Teams are weighted according to where they finished up last year in their age group rankings. For example the Affies First XV rugby team is weighted according to where the Affies U16 team was ranked last year. The 2018 U16’s are weighted according to where the Affies U15 2017 team was ranked etc. The assumption is made that the 2018 u16 team will be made up from players who played in the u15 2017 team.