Right, so four weeks in and it’s about time to update the Strength of Schedule. Every week from now the Strength of Schedule will be updated on the homepage based on the weekend’s results, and new standings.

It’s a little early this year, and slightly misleading, given teams like the Highlanders and Chiefs have only played twice, but as ever use this as just one factor in making those all important weekly transfers.

Strength of Schedule Week 4:

There’s a few interesting points here. If you compare the overall scores to what they looked like pre-season (further below), then schedules for the Jags and Sunwolves suck. More interestingly the Rebels and Lions now look like they’ve got the best overall fixtures. Lions we called pre-season, but Rebels are clearly the form team and their schedule looks like it could open up.

In the near term – i.e. next 5 games – the Reds actually have the statistically easiest run. Kerevi any-one ?

Anyway, I’d take the above with a pinch of salt, as really you need teams to have played a couple at home, a couple away, and a couple on tour.

For reference, below was the original strength of schedule based on 2017 standings: