Exactly David, we're all just kicking around ideas and bouncing them off each other.

Yeah, certainly my initial gut feel was that there is insufficient data for a statistical model for rankings. But some of Cam's results, and given the forthcoming Euro Champs and Oceania Cup, gave me reason to think it may work. Especially if relevant 9s can be included.

In terms of you saying there's more 9s tournaments, yes kind of. Certainly a lot of club 9s. But in terms of internationals, what do we have? The EU Cup and CEAFL (held occasionally and was the forerunner to the EU Cup and mostly stood aside when the EU Cup got going). Not sure what numbers the recent Scotland and Wales matches have used.

The Middle East 9s wouldn't really count at this stage as almost all are expat Aussies. In Asia I think the Asian Champs are played with larger squads, although again, mostly expats although slowly changing.

South Africa these days don't get to play internationals against other countries outside of the IC, though their matches against the Boomerangs and Australian U17s are 18s. (I guess we could chuck Australia in with ranking points based on the U17s!)

But the US play Canada regularly in 18s. Ireland, GB and Denmark have been playing a 3-way series as 18s, or at least "Tests" between the 3 of them. Germany, Sweden and Denmark had the same briefly.

So I think outside of the EU Cup I don't see a lot of 9s internationals. Anyone else think of any?

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN