No.1 Springboks are third-best in the World Rankings record books

Maybe because like me, we just never really checked the veracity. Yes the Boks do seem to utilise the players more efficiently.

I honestly think, a lot of fans have an idea in their heads of what a good coach would do, and when their team does well they assume the coach is doing those good things, and when their team does poorly they assume the coach isn't doing those things.

They never stop to check what the coach actually is doing.

Yes, I think the main difference in approach is that SA pick from a small group of players, but then rotate heavily within that group

Other teams pick from a big group, but then rotate less heavily

SA’s approach seems to be far superior, but lots of SA supporters deny that it's happening and insist that Rassie keeps handing out debuts, which he doesn't!

Ok I did a quick search, changing the parameters to senior test debutants with more than 5 test caps

South Africa - 10

New Zealand 11

Australia - 10

Scotland - 9

England - 11

Argentina - 7

Ireland - 7

France -11

Interesting exercise, I sit corrected. Maybe the perception is media driven or South Africa just retain more players. Because in the NZ media they bemoan lack of opportunities given, yet it is in par with that of South Africa

Interesting stats, thank you. Interesting that NZ has so many debutants when all their fans bemoan that there are no new players being trailed.

I do believe that the Boks use their players more as seen by the many rotational teams that the Boks play.

It would be interesting to see if those caps include the appointed second official team, which in the Boks case is the SA A team, Saxons for England. Because I find these numbers to be very high.

OK - this is how many players have been awarded caps since the start of 2021. I don’t think RugbyPass will allow me to link to articles on other websites, but my source for all of these are the wikipedia articles titled ‘List of [country name] National Rugby Union Players’, apart from for Argentina, where I used an article on the UAR website titled ‘Pumas Para Toda la Vida’.

FRA - no up to date list available, but obviously they cap a lot of debutants

SA 38

ARG 38

NZ 40

IRE 42

ITA 47

SCO 50

AUS 55

ENG 57

WAL 58

“How many of the debutants stay in the test squad and test selection frame thereafter?”

I have no idea, that’s much harder to quantify. That’s not the claim I was making, so if you are going to make that claim you’d have to suggest some way of quantifying it.

“If your assertion holds merit, then that country should be right near the top of the test rankings, right?”

What assertion? What country? I didn’t make any assertion about which team should be near the top of the rankings.

At the end of the day its not the Longest continuous reigns at the top of the rankings, but WORLD CUPS that REALLY counts.

I would rather be consentrating and be investing in current affairs regarding rugby. I think it is something new for the rugby world to understand and admit. South African rugby have grown from being compedative and for a long time preditable to being inovative and intelectually advancing the way we play. What they have done is remarkable and other countries should follow suit rather than complain about who is and used to be the best. The ABs will forever be the boks benchmark and greatest rivals and I believe it is the other way around for the ABs as well. The way we played have for years been determaned by Super rugby. Isnt it strange that once we got out of that competition we became a powerhouse?

I wonder what’s more important - a bird in the hand right now, or two in the bush between 7 and 19 years ago? Retrospective exceptionalism…

Spare a thought too for the 116 other full member unions who will never even feature in the conversation.

Shame.

Or you could just admit that you have run out of ideas of what to write.

Ha ha ha

The Springboks supporters,just got a reality check.

You may have 4 World cups,which you deserve but stop trying to compare yourselves with the All Blacks.

We never do with you but always trying to say your the best every country to play rugby? Is this Bokka team the best ever?

507 weeks No 1

3 World cups

21 tri nations, championship trophies

Also a 40 year unbeaten run at Eden Park.

That's all facts my South African friends.

So stop going on about your team,just enjoy them,for the amazing team they are.

Stop putting down other countries,who ain't is good,or haven't won a world cup.

Most South African people I have meet,have been proud South Africans but have also shown other nations Respect…

I'm sure the ones online,have never played the game,just keyboard warriors

Another resident historian and part-time delusional optimist working for RugbyPass…

You could also apply the same logic to the RWC where the Springboks have held it for the greatest number of weeks (782 weeks), also have the highest RWC win rate at 50% or 4/8 tournaments and won it 4 times.

But hey, let’s focus all our attention on living in the stone age…

If stroking your ego won matches and world Cups, All blacks would win into eternity…. So here goes. I hereby declare that every match played against the mighty All Blacks will be won by them convincingly given their past dominance over the rest. For does not history dictate that your past bears significant influence over your Future? By this logic if only they invoke their decade long dominence between 2009 and 2019 AND the unbeaten record of sitting at number 1 for the periods stated above, THEY WILL MAKE MINCE MEAT OF THE BOKS IN THE GREATEST RIVALRY TOUR🥳 May I also remind the Boks that the mighty AllBlacks will NOT hesitate to invoke the 57-0 stats if they (Boks) gets too big for their boots…. That will show them……

Humble Bok supporter.

No team will have the same dominance as that great all black side, rugby has become more competitive across the globe and the days of dominance are over just like the great Australian cricket side.

I see all the comparisons being made with that AB side but for me it’s comparing apples and pears it’s not as simple as comparing stats

2020 saw the rise of France and Ireland as global rugby powers along with South Africa with nothing to choose between the top 4, rugby has never been that competitive in the professional era, during the 2009-2019 period the two powers were largely NZ and South Africa but there was a clear distance between 1 and 2 and then the rest.

The bigger question to ask and more fun to consider is who would win a hypothetical match between the current springbok team and that fabulous AB team? I don’t think that’s a simple answer either given how strong modern day defensive systems are. In a 3 test series it would be incredibly tight but I would properly favour the current boks based on their untouchable set piece and bench

We’ll all be more the wiser after the Nations Championship, Rivalry Tour and Mens 2027 RWC results are posted…

Are we counting the Covid period?

You might as well do that other retrospective method that has South Africa at number 1 time at the top and Scotland the third best country in test history. It’s about as relevant.

Congrat boks on 4 scratchie world titles.🤭🤣,but other than that wat hav boks achieved outside the world cup.not much.fact.as this article shows.bit like the tri nations.they hav bn playing that for 30yrs upto 2025 and hav only won it 5 times.🤣yet ab's hav won it 20 times.🤣

I know this article is not throwing mud at NZ but why does our name have to keep coming into everything? Usually with a sour taste in the mouth it must be said.

It may surprise you to know that a lot of average NZers, rugby fans to boot, don't even know about our “win-rate” statistics. I have watched and loved our national sport since I was 4 years old and I only found out about our best sports team in the world “thing” about 4 years ago.

I can only speak for myself I guess, I know that we expect to win most games, we love the anticipation of a country coming here to play, but would start to feel sorry for them once we had put 30 points on them.

Its great that things have levelled up in that sense, but would be good if the niggle for the two long-standing dominating teams the All Blacks and the Springboks would come down a bit too.

Although its probably a lot to do with what makes us so close.

It would be nice if, as the two top seeds, we didnt have to try and knock each other out of the 1/4s next year (another first in World Cup sporting history!)

The short version is, Congratulations SA on being ranked No1 for so long. It is not by accident these things are accomplished, it is by brains, brawn, dedication, alignment, blood and sweat.

Looking forward to the tour. 🖤💚

100%

Couldn’t they retrospectively calculate the world rankings pre 2003 using the current algorithm? I would think some other teams may challenge this list.