The Silver Ferns are first on the current World Rankings.

The IFNA World Rankings system was developed by David Kendix and the first list was published on 11 February 2008.

ABOUT THE IFNA WORLD RANKINGS
Teams
This ranking list relates to senior teams of member countries that are playing regular international test matches.

Ranking and Rating
A rating is a measure of the average performance of a team over a series of matches. Each team earns a certain number of points from each international match. Their rating is the total number of points earned divided by the number of matches played.

The team with the highest rating is ranked first in the world. The next highest rating is ranked second and so on.

Weighting
Matches played a long time ago are a poorer guide to current form than more recent results. Therefore past results are given a lower weighting than recent results.

For the purposes of this list, matches played since July 2008 currently have a full weighting (100%). Matches played in the two previous years (July 2006-June 2008) have a weighting of 50%. Earlier matches are not directly included in the ratings at all.

Each July, the oldest year of results drops out of the ratings and the weightings are redistributed. This is the one annual occasion when the rankings list can alter other than through a match being played.

Points
The number of points earned by a team for any match depends on two factors:

• The result (won, tied or lost)
• The opponent against whom the result was achieved. The higher an opponent’s rating the more points are earned for beating them.

Rating Period
It is not meaningful for a team to claim a world ranking if they have only played a small number of matches. As soon as a team has played eight International test matches over the rating period (currently this means since July 2006), then they will earn an official world ranking.

If a team has played fewer than eight matches, they will still have a rating, but without a corresponding ranking.