Q: How did you come up with an idea as awesome as this?
A: I naturally come up with ideas all the time, many of which are even better than this one (admittedly some are worse). It's really not that unusual for me to think of great things like this.
Q: What is the 10N all about?
A: Generally it's about rugby. More specifically its about providing an alternative international competition involving the best teams in the world. This already exists every four years in the form of the world cup but this competition provides a better assessment of the best in the world as its round robin format rewards consistency rather than one off performances.
Q: Who contests the 10N tournament?
A: Each year the tournament will be contested between the top ten ranked nations in the world as determined by the official World Rugby rankings system after completion of all the preceding years international matches.
Q: When are the tournament matches going to be played? The international rugby schedule is very full already.
A: There will be no additional matches played specifically for this tournament (at least for the foreseeable future). Tournament matches consist of matches already being played under the existing 6 Nations, Rugby Championship and June and November tour windows and throughout these tests the bulk of top ten nations will meet. Unfortunately not all nations will complete real world matches between each other in the calendar year, these matches will be simulated to determine a winner.
Q: There are often multiple matches between the nations involved. How is the particular match that counts toward this tournament selected.
A: In the case of multiple matches between nations the match that counts towards the championship will be selected by me (ideally before the tournament commences) with an attempt to share home and away matches as evenly as possible. Where multiple home or away matches occur (eg. a three test tour) the second match of the group is generally selected.
Q: How are the simulated matches awarded?
A: Each simulated match will be awarded to the team with the highest average adjusted points differential of the two. This system rewards relative performance for teams when playing real world matches as a good performance regardless of the win/loss will increase the likelihood of them winning their simulated matches.
Q: OK but what is the average adjusted point differential?
A: After each match both teams have points differential based on the game score. This is then adjusted by adding a ranking adjustment factor to the differential to give a final adjusted points differential for the match. A teams average adjusted points differential consists of the sum of all its individual match adjusted differentials divided by the number of matches played. The ranking adjustment factor itself consists of the difference between the opposing teams IRB ranking points and the 10th ranked nations ranking points (all taken at the first results of the calendar year). For example in 2013 Italy was the 10th ranked nation on 76.24 IRB ranking points while the 1st tanked nation New Zealand were on 90.08 IRB ranking points. Therefore a team playing New Zealand would receive 13.84 points added to their differential as a ranking adjustment factor while a team playing Italy would receive zero additional points. The system is designed to give additional value for teams who have played higher ranked teams when determining who would win the simulated matches..
A: I naturally come up with ideas all the time, many of which are even better than this one (admittedly some are worse). It's really not that unusual for me to think of great things like this.
Q: What is the 10N all about?
A: Generally it's about rugby. More specifically its about providing an alternative international competition involving the best teams in the world. This already exists every four years in the form of the world cup but this competition provides a better assessment of the best in the world as its round robin format rewards consistency rather than one off performances.
Q: Who contests the 10N tournament?
A: Each year the tournament will be contested between the top ten ranked nations in the world as determined by the official World Rugby rankings system after completion of all the preceding years international matches.
Q: When are the tournament matches going to be played? The international rugby schedule is very full already.
A: There will be no additional matches played specifically for this tournament (at least for the foreseeable future). Tournament matches consist of matches already being played under the existing 6 Nations, Rugby Championship and June and November tour windows and throughout these tests the bulk of top ten nations will meet. Unfortunately not all nations will complete real world matches between each other in the calendar year, these matches will be simulated to determine a winner.
Q: There are often multiple matches between the nations involved. How is the particular match that counts toward this tournament selected.
A: In the case of multiple matches between nations the match that counts towards the championship will be selected by me (ideally before the tournament commences) with an attempt to share home and away matches as evenly as possible. Where multiple home or away matches occur (eg. a three test tour) the second match of the group is generally selected.
Q: How are the simulated matches awarded?
A: Each simulated match will be awarded to the team with the highest average adjusted points differential of the two. This system rewards relative performance for teams when playing real world matches as a good performance regardless of the win/loss will increase the likelihood of them winning their simulated matches.
Q: OK but what is the average adjusted point differential?
A: After each match both teams have points differential based on the game score. This is then adjusted by adding a ranking adjustment factor to the differential to give a final adjusted points differential for the match. A teams average adjusted points differential consists of the sum of all its individual match adjusted differentials divided by the number of matches played. The ranking adjustment factor itself consists of the difference between the opposing teams IRB ranking points and the 10th ranked nations ranking points (all taken at the first results of the calendar year). For example in 2013 Italy was the 10th ranked nation on 76.24 IRB ranking points while the 1st tanked nation New Zealand were on 90.08 IRB ranking points. Therefore a team playing New Zealand would receive 13.84 points added to their differential as a ranking adjustment factor while a team playing Italy would receive zero additional points. The system is designed to give additional value for teams who have played higher ranked teams when determining who would win the simulated matches..