I have been monitoring three rugby union competitions in the 2014-2015 northern hemisphere season.
I track performance against previous year’s ranking. In the tables below green indicates a win predicted by ranking and blue a defeat predicted by ranking. Gold is an unexpected win against ranking and red an unexpected defeat against ranking.
Aviva Premiership
The Aviva Premiership resumed last weekend after a break for European fixtures.
Week 10 followed the pattern of Week 1 … all games followed the 2013-2014 rankings.
Greene King Championship
Three games were played last weekend. All followed 2013-2014 ranking.
Top 14 Orange
Round 13 of the Top 14 Orange competition in France provided the only exception to the ranking rule this weekend. Bayonne defeated Bordeaux Begles by 3 points. Bayonne’s win reflects the Top 14 trend of lower ranked teams winning at home. Grenoble did play a higher ranked team at home and lost … despite scoring 30 points against Stade Francais. You could say they were the exception to the exception.
Making a Difference
Fifteen out of last weekends sixteen fixtures followed 2013-2014 rankings. What interests me is that all teams have had an opportunity to reset their focus and training modalities after a break for European competition.
Have the teams regressed to type during this period?
There were no tries in the Bayonne v Bordeaux-Begles game. The game was won in the 78th minute with a drop goal.
Photo Credits
Millenium Stadium (Marc, CC BY NC-ND 2.0)
Joe Launchbury (Peter Dean, CC BY NC-ND 2.0)
DSC_1038 (Simon Robinson, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Match rugby Top 14: Racing Metro v Perpignan (Christophe Cussant-Blanc, CC BY NC-ND 2.0)
USAP – Stade Toulousain 2012 (M Kibo, CC BY 2.0)
