It wasn’t that long ago that there was just one national school rugby ranking system, now every about every website that covers rugby has it’s own one. Here is the combined effect of 6 such website’s rankings. Points have been allocated on the basis of 20 for 1st, 19 for 2nd, etc, etc. while the remaining few teams are from those who were ranked best outside the Top 20.
| RANK | COMBINATION | PTS | SCHOOLBOY RUGBY | RUGBY15 | SCHOOL SPORTS NEWS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grey College | 120 | Grey College | Grey College | Grey College |
| 2 | Paul Roos | 113 | Paul Roos | Garsfontein | Paul Roos |
| 3 | Garsfontein | 107 | Paarl Gim | Paul Roos | Grey HS |
| 4 | Monument | 98 | Garsfontein | Monument | Garsfontein |
| 5 | Grey HS | 97 | Monument | Grey HS | Monument |
| 6 | Glenwood | 79 | Grey HS | Selborne | Glenwood |
| 7 | Paarl Gim | 77 | Wynberg | Waterkloof | EG Jansen |
| 8 | EG Jansen | 75 | Glenwood | Paarl Gim | Paarl Gim |
| 9 | Selborne | 71 | HJS Paarl BH | Nelspruit | HJS Paarl BH |
| 10 | HJS Paarl BH | 67 | EG Jansen | Glenwood | Wynberg |
| 11 | Wynberg | 56 | Selborne | HJS Paarl BH | Selborne |
| 12 | Waterkloof | 49 | Waterkloof | EG Jansen | HTS Middelburg |
| 13 | Outeniqua | 42 | Maritzburg College | Wynberg | Maritzburg College |
| 14 | Nelspruit | 41 | Outeniqua | Maritzburg College | Outeniqua |
| 15 | HTS Middelburg | 41 | Nelspruit | Outeniqua | Nelspruit |
| 16 | Maritzburg College | 37 | HTS Middelburg | Louis Botha | Michaelhouse |
| 17 | Menlopark | 33 | Louis Botha | Menlopark | Oakdale |
| 18 | Michaelhouse | 22 | Michaelhouse | HTS Middelburg | Menlopark |
| 19 | Oakdale | 13 | Menlopark | Oakdale | Waterkloof |
| 20 | Louis Botha | 10 | Oakdale | Michaelhouse | Bishops |
| 21 | Westville | 4 | Westville | Dale | Westville |
| 22 | Brandwag (Uitenhage) | 3 | Kempton Park | Bishops | Brandwag (Uitenhage) |
| 23 | Kempton Park | 3 | Brandwag (Uitenhage) | Tygerberg | Dale |
| 24 | Bishops | 1 | Bishops | Affies | Kempton Park |
| 25 | Affies | 1 | Voortrekker (Beth) | Helpmekaar | St Andrew’s |
| 26 | Dale | 0 | KES | Kearsney | Boland Landbou |
| 27 | St Andrew’s | 0 | Transvalia | Westville | KES |
| 28 | Voortrekker (Beth) | 0 | Stellenberg | Jeppe | Jeppe |
| 29 | Stellenberg | 0 | Diamantveld | St Andrew’s | Affies |
| 30 | KES | 0 | Landboudal | Marlow | Framesby |
| RANK | SASCHOOLSPORTS | RUGBY365 | HIGH SCHOOL RUGBY WORLD | SCHOOL RUGBY SCORES | |
| 1 | Grey College | Grey College | Grey College | ||
| 2 | Paul Roos | Paul Roos | Paul Roos | ||
| 3 | Garsfontein | Garsfontein | Garsfontein | ||
| 4 | Monument | EG Jansen | Monument | ||
| 5 | Grey HS | Grey HS | Grey HS | ||
| 6 | Selborne | Monument | Selborne | ||
| 7 | Glenwood | Waterkloof | HJS Paarl BH | ||
| 8 | Paarl Gim | Glenwood | Glenwood | ||
| 9 | EG Jansen | Nelspruit | EG Jansen | ||
| 10 | HJS Paarl BH | HTS Middelburg | Paarl Gim | ||
| 11 | Michaelhouse | Menlopark | Wynberg | ||
| 12 | Menlopark | Paarl Gim | Outeniqua | ||
| 13 | Outeniqua | HJS Paarl BH | Waterkloof | ||
| 14 | HTS Middelburg | Wynberg | Maritzburg College | ||
| 15 | Wynberg | Selborne | HTS Middelburg | ||
| 16 | Maritzburg College | Outeniqua | Menlopark | ||
| 17 | Westville | Oakdale | Nelspruit | ||
| 18 | Brandwag (Uitenhage) | Kempton Park | Michaelhouse | ||
| 19 | Waterkloof | Maritzburg College | Oakdale | ||
| 20 | Nelspruit | Affies | Louis Botha | ||
| 21 | Grens | ||||
| 22 | St David’s | ||||
| 23 | Voortrekker (Beth) | ||||
| 24 | Bishops | ||||
| 25 | Stellenberg | ||||
| 26 | Hans Moore | ||||
| 27 | Oakdale | ||||
| 28 | Dale | ||||
| 29 | Louis Botha | ||||
| 30 | St Andrew’s |
@McCulleys Workshop: There isn’t much else to do in Cradock is there ?
@All Black: @All Black: I didn’t attempt to rank the teams in the comment. I merely used the same ranking as the combo in the article and completed Grey Brak’s request for games played against other Top 20 teams (as per the Combo Top 20).
The BHP formula also isn’t my design but it’s gained a lot of recognition for accuracy. A squiz at the make up of the BHP shows that College score zeroes for defeats against Glenwood (away) and Grey College. Wynberg only scores 1 zero for a defeat against Grey High. So just that along propels them well above College because the divisor is so small (5 games)
@Far Meadows: ya but they don’t count, they break anvils in their spare time
@McCulleys Workshop: How about Marlow , with only 240 boys and no sports bursaries offered.
@beet: If you don’t all play the same opposition, same number of games and on a home and away basis then you have no chance of getting it right. For KZN a Super 15 log was used then an average added????? If you use enough variables you will eventually get the desired result.
@beet: So Wynberg and College played 5 and lost 4 but end up with way different averages????? Sorry but all these rankings are really hit and miss.
@Tarpeys: And a school of 550 boys, or like Boland Landbou, 350 boys.
The question is, why go through all that trouble, if you can play for 6 weeks not buy any players, have a school teacher as a coach and still come in the top 20. There is hope out there.
@McCulleys Workshop: My example was more along the lines of me being the 23rd tow truck to arrive at a whoopsie, and I should get the wreck before the okes that arrived before me because I chose to drive all the way in 3rd gear ….
burreye get it ..
. @Gungets Tuft:
Sorry I’m speaking on behalf of the BHP rankings. The evaluation basis is not as slippery as you’d like to believe. You’ve basically described the factors that impact on any rugby points scoring model be it Super Rugby, Currie Cup or the IRB rankings.
I can’t really vouch for Rogan’s SASchoolSports rankings but lets see if he is willing to reveal how he came up with his scores.
@Gungets Tuft: Yip, either qualitative or quantitative, never the twain shall meet. That’s why the stats are no measure of anything other than a rough estimate of the top 1 or 2 sides. Imagine benchmarking your pension performance against these numbers! We underperformed but came 1st because we were in different sectors when we should have been in others, and we were only in the market for 6 weeks, but when you annualized those 6 weeks, we came 18th. Good hey?
@Gungets Tuft:
you were making a very strong point until that very last line 
@Beet: Thank you for the stats. These stats are a good indication of schools that have the most competitive/demanding seasons. Interesting to see that some teams making the top 20 have played only between 1 and 5 top 20 schools.
@MikeSt: I definitely think that the more a school is exposed to these “tougher” matches the stronger their rugby will become. Testing yourself against the best (top 20) week in and week out quickly makes teams realise in which areas they are lacking. Resultantly they can reflect on these matches in a constructive manner and focus on improving where necessary. Winning matches by a big margin serves little purpose in contructive reflection and improvement afterwards.
@beet: Does it take into account that College missed a kick at the death to beat Glenwood, and that a kick at the death lost the match against Wynberg, plus a disputed try (the video makes a strong case for an obstruction on the breakaway from the rolling maul) at the death against Westville lead to the draw (a missed conversion that might have won it for Westville?) . Slippery slope that qualitative evaluation …
And that if we had scored only 4 more converted tries we could have beaten GCB ??
@Far Meadows: @Gungets Tuft: Yes BUT the rankings can’t afford to just take the simple win or loss into account. It has to somehow factor in the level of competitiveness of the losing team. Otherwise we end up at square one again with schools that have easier fixture lists being ranked ahead of those who have taken on difficult opponents and obtained results that suggest they are in fact obviously better teams.
House ran Glenwood, College and Grey PE very close. 7 points in 3 games. Opportunities during those games to win all 3 as well.
@beet: These stats suggest that Klofies is perhaps a better team than their ranking suggests
@Grey Brak: Sorry the set out is kak but here it goes
TOP20 SCHOOL P W D L PF PA PD BHP_PTS
1 Grey College 12 10 1 1 354 186 168 4.31
2 Paul Roos 9 6 0 3 185 147 38 3.67
3 Garsfontein 8 5 0 3 234 190 44 3.25
4 Monument 6 2 2 2 122 97 25 3.17
5 Grey HS 8 5 0 3 176 170 6 3.05
6 Glenwood 8 4 0 4 169 184 -15 2.25
7 Paarl Gim 8 4 0 4 140 127 13 3.20
8 EG Jansen 9 5 0 4 220 227 -7 2.67
9 Selborne 3 0 1 2 57 77 -20 1.92
10 HJS Paarl BH 5 2 0 3 80 83 -3 3.00
11 Wynberg 5 1 0 4 92 110 -18 2.00
12 Waterkloof 6 4 0 2 181 162 19 3.17
13 Outeniqua 6 2 0 4 97 110 -13 2.55
14 Nelspruit 8 4 0 4 153 174 -21 2.94
15 HTS Middelburg 7 3 0 4 148 185 -37 2.16
16 Maritzburg College 5 1 0 4 95 135 -40 1.42
17 Menlopark 6 2 0 4 137 226 -89 1.97
18 Michaelhouse 3 0 0 3 45 52 -7 1.87
19 Oakdale 3 1 0 2 47 73 -26 1.67
20 Louis Botha 1 0 0 1 27 44 -17 -0.00
@Gungets Tuft: Agreed, that ‘House ranking seems a bit out of kilter, I could understand if they had won 2/3 of the Glenwood , College or Grey matches but they lost all of them.
@Playa: I’m not knocking House, they took College to 1 point in Balgowan, so they deserve a decent ranking based on the league results in KZN (where everyone plays against each other and ranking is easy), although House somehow managed to get ranked above College here in KZN as well (due to College losing twice to Glenwood – lowering their average, and defying logic
) … but 11th nationally seems a stretch. Basically SA School Sports is saying the less you play, and the more you win even against mediocre opposition, the better. Their formula must have been devised by a backline player, a forward would never make that sort of mistake. 
@Playa: Actually quite a joke that they even mentioned on rankings………..
Gets back on what I have said quite a while ago.
Break the ranking down into the known Macro, Medium and small setup and that would be more realistic.
@Grey Brak: EGJ played 5 of the top 6 and in total 8 of the top 20
@Grasshopper:
LOL! Outeniqua is also a coastal team.
@Gungets Tuft: I don’t think that ranking takes the quality of opposition into account. They have Die Brandwag at 18, Grens at 21 and St Davids at 22.
Most astounding however, is no. 26. No disrespect to the school, but I’d never heard of them, so did a quick search for their results and this is what I found:
HANS MOORE – RUGBY 1ST TEAM
.
DATE OPPONENT SCORE RESULT
.
March 01 Goudrif 9 – 10 LOST
.
March 15 Randburg 16 – 22 LOST
.
March 20 Oosterlig 6 – 26 LOST
.
March 29 Benoni High 29 – 0 WON
.
April 17 Heronbridge 69 – 3 WON
.
April 19 Falcon (Zim) 24 – 20 WON
.
April 21 Ashton Int. 56 – 3 WON
.
May 17 Oosterlig 15 – 13 WON
.
May 24 Hugenote (Springs) 6 – 43 LOST
.
May 31 Benoni High 43 – 9 WON
.
June 07 Elspark 68 – 0 WON
.
June 14 Driehoek 15 – 32 LOST
Glenwood lost to Outeniqua and Waterkloof at Wildeklawer, granted it’s pretty difficult for coastal teams to win there but those two sides should probably be higher and Glenwood 2 places lower in the combined rankings….
SASchoolsports – Michaelhouse?
Who did House play and beat that they get their ranking. Domestically they lost to College and Glenwood.
@jakes: I think they are one of the only ones that don’t use a formula
I have to say that Rugby 365 probably has the most accurate rankings for the 2014 season
@beet: Would it be possible to determine how many matches the teams in the top 20 played against schools that also ended in the top 20?
Ex. Grey played 12 top 20 schools (8 of those were top 10 schools).