đ The Week in International Sport
Monday June 8th: rugby sevens, FIFA World Cup predictions and Sydney Schertenleib
This year at Plot the Ball, Iâm using data to try and better understand the landscape of international team sport. For some background to this project â which Iâm calling âRank the Nationsâ â you can read my introductory post here.
In todayâs edition of The Week in International Sport:
đżđŠ South Africa winning a world title in menâs rugby sevens
đŠđș Australia winning a world title in womenâs rugby sevens
đ±đ» Latvia winning a world title in menâs 3x3 basketball
đșđž The USA winning a world title in womenâs 3x3 basketball
đ Chart of the week: assessing the favourites for the menâs soccer World Cup
âȘïž Highlight of the week: Sydney Schertenleibâs frozen rope
đ A few other interesting things I learned
As a reminder: the team ratings used in this newsletter are on a zero-to-10 scale, and are calculated based on a nationâs performance in competitive fixtures in a given sport since the start of the 2022 calendar year. (For more detail, click here.)
đżđŠ South Africa win the 2026 Menâs SVNS World Championship
Iâd argue that World Rugby has overseen a real levelling of the competitive playing field in the sports it oversees â on the menâs side, at least â since rugby union turned professional during the 1990s.
Iâve written previously in this newsletter about how the gap between European nations and the traditional Southern Hemisphere powers has closed in the 15-a-side version of the sport; look at menâs rugby sevens, too, and there is clear evidence of the top nationsâ advantages being competed away in recent decades. Eight of the first nine World Series titles between 2000 and 2008 were won by New Zealand; over the last nine editions of the year-long competition, five different teams have finished on top.
Itâs also clear enough in the âRank the Nationsâ ratings: the three top-ranked nations at the conclusion of the latest edition of the World Series â Argentina (6.6), Fiji (6.6) and New Zealand (6.5) â are almost inseparable, while the World Championship title was actually won by South Africa (6.1), currently ranked fourth. Argentina are a real success story here: they finished in the top four of the overall ladder only once between 2000 and 2008, but have four such finishes in the last five seasons alone.
đŠđș Australia win the 2026 Womenâs SVNS World Championship
Australia (7.9) peaked at the right time during the 2025-26 womenâs rugby sevens season, winning two of the three postseason World Series events to pip New Zealand (8.5) to the overall World Championship title.
Their recent record still isnât as strong as the Kiwisâ, whether you look at it over five years or a shorter stretch of time. So far in 2026, Australia have scored 69% of the points in their matches; New Zealandâs point share remains notably higher at 76%.
đ±đ» Latvia win the 2026 FIBA Menâs 3x3 World Cup
Latvia (6.5) beat Germany (5.0) in the final of the menâs 3x3 basketball World Cup yesterday, finally adding a gold medal at the competition to their previous silver (in 2019) and bronze (in 2023).
Their opponents are on an upward trajectory, though. Silver this year followed a fourth-place World Cup finish in 2025; they were also fourth in last yearâs Europe Cup. Prior to 2025, Germany had never finished higher than ninth in either tournament.
đșđž The USA win the 2026 FIBA Womenâs 3x3 World Cup
The final of the womenâs 3x3 tournament â which ran alongside the menâs in Poland â was contested by the USA (7.1) and Australia (6.6). They were the two top-ranked nations in the sport entering the World Cup, and remain so at its conclusion.
The USA took the title with a 21-20 victory, backing up a 21-18 pool-stage win over the same opponents. In the semi-finals, however, the Americans did need overtime to beat Azerbaijan (5.1), who knocked them out of the Champions Cup in March.
đ Chart of the week: Whoâs flying under the radar at the FIFA World Cup?
Last week, I linked to some menâs soccer World Cup predictions made by the DTAI Sports Analytics Lab at KU Leuven. What do we learn by comparing their forecast to the publicâs predictions? (Pew surveyed 3,507 Americans back in March.)
Letâs first dispense with some bias in favour of two of the hosts; both Mexico and the USA are among the nine contenders named in the Pew survey, but donât appear as high on the DTAI Labâs list. Conversely, two teams not singled out by the public are among the expertsâ top nine: the Netherlands â who, per the DTAI Lab, have the seventh-best chance of winning the World Cup outright â and Colombia. The latter face Portugal on June 27th; it could be one of the better games of the pool stages.
âȘïž Highlight of the week: Sydney Schertenleibâs frozen rope
Spainâs win over England on Friday â part of the latest set of UEFA qualifiers for the next womenâs soccer World Cup â was a reminder to Barcelona fans of what they have just lost: it was powered by two goals from departing superstar Alexia Putellas.
Across Europe that same evening, however, were glimpses into the clubâs future. Kika Nazareth scored twice for Portugal in a win over Latvia; the pick of the goals from Barça players, though, came from the right foot of Switzerland midfielder Sydney Schertenleib. Early against Malta, the 19-year-old won possession near halfway with her back to goal. She turned, carried the ball forward until she was a couple of paces outside the box and arrowed the ball towards the top corner with effortless power.
You can watch a replay of this goal on YouTube here.
đ What else I learned last week
For ESPNCricinfo, Hemant Brar reported on Afghanistanâs hopes of more regular exposure to top competition in menâs test cricket. This weekâs match in India is only their 13th since 2018, and theyâre yet to play against most of the sportâs other top nations. Their board is trying to force top players to spend more time in red-ball cricket by limiting how much they play in shorter formats. An assistant coach of the team said: âWe want them to respect and play our domestic cricket".
For Yahoo! Sports, Jack Baer covered the latest update from the commissioner of the NBA on the leagueâs planned launch of an affiliated franchise competition for menâs basketball in Europe. The league is pitching âNBA Europeâ â currently expected to launch in 2027 â as a 16-team competition; some participants will be existing professional clubs, and some will be âgroups whoâŠwant to launch teams in cities that don't have top-level basketball right nowâ.
For Fangraphs, Jay Jaffe described the technical changes made by Roki Sasaki and the Los Angeles Dodgers at the start of his second season pitching in MLB. The 24-year-old â who represented Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but opted out of this yearâs edition â had been performing at a much lower level than expected after moving to the USA; in recent weeks, however, his outings have improved on the back of âbetter command and [a] reconfigured repertoireâ.
The next edition of the newsletter will be published on Monday June 15th.
