I'd argue the national rankings should be just that - rankings by nation. So I'd prefer we leave off the Women's B teams and the AIM etc.

Regards the men's - one of the problems with the Asia Lions being included is that everyone in that squad actually normally plays for another ranked team (Japan, Indonesia and Indochina at the least), it was made up of guys from all over the place as a once-off for China to have opposition before the Port game. A number of them are playing for Japan at this IC, some other with Indonesia and the rest are essentially within the Indochina squad from the locals in Cambodia, Laos etc. So everyone from the Asia Lions is already represented by one of those three ranked teams.

Indochina is legitimate in the rankings for the moment in the same manner that e.g. the West Indies is a legitimate international cricket side, at least until the individual countries are able to field full sides. I suppose the Crusaders maybe are a similar case in the women's.

If the Asian Lions are a once-off then they will eventually disappear from the Ranks and their actual effect on the ranks will fade into history just like that of other nations that have dropped out of the ranks, eg. Spain, Samoa. and probably Timor Leste and Iceland will do if they don't get back into playing international tests/matches.

I didn't notice Cam had slipped the Asian Lions in there. I think this needs greater discussion before we include it in our official rankings. It's basically an all-star Asian side yet comes in as though it is a new nation for the first time, starting on 40 pts. You could imagine in other circumstances it smashing a national side, that side therefore sliding down the ranks, then the all-star side never plays again. And if it's a somewhat random collection of players then there's no consistency of performance. Next time it might include Chinese players and be playing against Japan, rather than against China. I think there are enough nations playing and well established that we don't need to include these hybrids; let's not rush or compromise things just because we're keen to fast track the future and see more nations fully ranked.