The Ruggas.co.za rankings did undergo a bit of an overhaul to make it a "more" fair system, however, we also accept that our system has its own flaws and should never be used to start a fight with your wife or the "dominee". However, with an average success rate of 85% plus and 500+ schools being rated you will not often lose your money or the fight if you use the ruggas.co.za rankings as a guide.
Ruggas.co.za was criticized continuously during the 2024 season for not ranking Paul Roos 1stXV as the best in the country despite them brushing all contenders aside while our 1stXV ranked team was Grey College. Eventually, Paul Roos beat Grey College in the final game of the year and deservedly claimed the top spot, and everybody was happy.
Discussing our system using historical rankings to start the new year, it was decided to change the calculations for the starting ranking in a new year. 2025 starting ranking points were calculated using 70% of the last 1stXV ranking in 2024 and 30% of the last U16 ranking of 2024.
This method effectively "robbed" Paul Roos of their 3 ranking points "buffer" which gave them a one-match loss before their crown was at risk. Fair? Paul Roos will say no but the rest will say yes.
To view the 1stXV Rankings click here
Our calculations are based on the formula used by World Rugby, however, to start a new year with historical rankings, especially at schoolboy levels, is often criticised which resulted in us adapting our formula to reflect the strengths of the current year's teams sooner.
Using this method could result in a team that competes against the top-tier schools still being ranked higher than a school competing against lower-tier schools. Therefore who you play is often more important than winning or losing.
The winner will gain ranking points while the losing team will lose the same amount of points the winner will gain.
The most ranking points a team can gain or lose is 3 ranking points. If a team beats a school who have ten or more ranking points less than itself no ranking points will be awarded, however, if the lower-ranked team win the normal calculations will apply. If the difference between the two teams is 20 or more log points the highest ranked team will automatically lose 1 ranking point while the lower ranked team will gain 1 ranking point irrespective of the result, however, if the lower ranked team win the normal calculations will apply.