PNG moves up to 10th spot

The National Sports

By ISAAC LIRI
Papua New Guinea Kumuls have moved six places in the international rugby league ranking from 16th to 10th, according to the Rugby League International Federation website.
PNG Rugby Football League as a member of the international federation is satisfied with the fact that the Kumuls have bettered their ranking, however, they were expecting to be ranked fifth to eighth, says chairman Sandis Tsaka.
“Given our good performance in the recent World Cup where we beat all teams that were ranked above us, we thought we would have moved up a bit more,” Tsaka said.
“In 2014 we beat Tonga, in 2015 we lost to Fiji and then the following year in 2016 we beat Fiji and then we beat Cook Islands early this year.
“In the World Cup, we beat all teams ranked above us and we lost to England in the quarterfinals so within the space of four years we have won six internationals and lost two. We understand that if we get more points by winning matches in a World Cup and beating a team that is above us in ranking that determines our spot in the rankings.
“We are aware of the general system and we are notified of the process but then the specifics of the actual points system is still a grey area to us so we are now in the process of seeking clarification with the RLIF.”
Coach Michael Marum said they were expecting a bit more improvement on their rankings.
“It’s good that we have moved up six places but our goal was to improve better than six places and I think we deserved that but again we are not aware of the criteria being used,” Marum said.
With the rankings confirmed, PNGRFL expects more internationals to improve their standing.
A higher weighting is given to the most recent internationals to calculate rating points and the rating index.
The top 20 of the men’s world rankings were:
1. Australia, 2. New Zealand, 3. England, 4. Tonga, 5. Fiji, 6. Samoa, 7. Scotland , 8. France, 9. Lebanon, 10. PNG, 11. Ireland, 12. Wales, 13. Italy, 14. USA, 15. Jamaica, 16. Serbia, 17. Canada, 18. Malta, 19. Russia, 20. Belgium.