NEWS:THE COMPLICATED IRB rankings, which are updated after every international weekend, have raised a few eyebrows.

Australia, who have lost seven of their last 11 Test matches, remain ranked third ahead of defending Six Nations champions Ireland, who have not been beaten since New Zealand came to Croke Park in November 2008.

During that time they played 12 matches, winning 11 of them and drawing one game with the Wallabies.

Granted, Ireland are the biggest movers in the system since the 2007 World Cup, climbing from eighth to fourth in the last 12 months alone, and the IRB yesterday explained why they remain below Australia in the rankings.

Australia retained third spot in the world, despite losing six of the seven games against New Zealand and South Africa in 2009, because the only result that really hurts a team is defeat to a country ranked below them, especially at home, and their loss in Murrayfield last November wasn’t enough for Ireland or France to surpass them.

However, if Ireland win in Paris on Saturday they will move from fourth to third at the Wallabies’ expense. If France prevail no change will occur between third and fifth.

“There isn’t an anomaly,” said IRB spokesman Dominic Rumbles.

“It is based on a mathematical system.”

“The IRB world rankings were introduced in October 2003 and are calculated using a points exchange system in which teams take points off each other based on the match result,” explains the IRB website.

“Whatever one team gains, the other team loses.”

The exchanges are determined by the match result, the relative strength of the team and the margin of victory.

There is also an allowance for home advantage.

New Zealand moved above Tri-Nations champions South Africa due to November results, but, it should be noted, the Springboks got no points for winning the Lions Test series.

According to the IRB: “The system’s reliability is assessed in a number of objective ways, including measuring its ‘predictive accuracy’.

“If, over a period of time, the system tends to be good at predicting which side will win each match, then we can be confident it is presenting an accurate and reliable picture of current strength, and responding appropriately to changes in form.”

Ireland started 2009 on 78.45 ranking points to Australia’s 85.86. A complete breakdown of the system is available on IRB.com.

Meanwhile, Ulster have continued their recruitment of veteran international forwards by signing former All Black number eight Xavier Rush from the Cardiff Blues on a two-year contract.

The 32 year old will join Springbok lock Johann Muller in Belfast from July 1st.