The Rugby Magazine - Fantasy Rugby

[Raggs]

Just dropped Nowell, only injured for another 3-4 weeks apparently, but he released the funds I needed to get 2 fit and starting players on my bench, and also boost my non-international numbers for the future.

[Puja]

Really tough week for selection for me. I had to take the 20 point hit for a second out transfer, transferred in 4 players and still have two benched players on my bench.

The salaries really haven't gone up drastically with form though - I was able to pick up Isiekwe and Collins for a song and Simmonds is still only £115k.

Puja

[Raggs]

Isiekwe! He may have been a smarter pick than the guy I picked up. Ah well, perhaps another potential pick.

[Scrumhead]

I offloaded Matt Symons today. I thought he was a solid bet, but he’s been injury prone and not all that effective when he has played.

I was sorely tempted to bin Wade, but I reckon the next 6 weeks or so are where he may rack up the points agains weakened defences.

[Raggs]

I'm hoping Wasps have an upturn in fortunes and Wade is useful again.

[Bloggs]

Marchant and Woodward both being unavailable is a big hit for me, along with the suspensions of Burns, Sinckler and Ward

Francis is in last chance saloon, may have to offload him soon, and will need to rid myself of one of Takulua, Robson and de Klerk for squad balance - I also have a lot of back rowers and locks in my squad!

[El Tigre]

Tough week with Louw, Hughes and Sinkler banned and B. Curry not playing.

I really need to off-load Beaumont and F. Burns. Although I can at least bring Kitchener back in as he appears to be out of the doghouse.

[bitts]

Injuries and rotation have absolutely screwed me. Ended up. Dropping 80 points and now have a squad of 38

[Scrumhead]

I’ve got 38 too. It’s bloated and I wish I’d saved some cash at the beginning to give myself some flexibility but I’m now in a situation where I can’t freshen-up my squad without losing points.

Despite having the handicap of not being in the game until round 3, my second team (not in our league) is probably going to catch up with my first team before too long. I reckon that side will be up there in the overall rankings for round 7 and I’m regularly out-scoring my first squad by 50-100pts. Lessons learned ...

That said, my first squad was built with the intention of being less impacted by the AIs/6N. It’s quite possible that the next 6 or 7 weeks could be my squad’s time to shine while the big names are away.

[Raggs]

Mako Vunipola was definitely a good choice for captain Anyone seen a player with 160 points by themselves before? Hope it doesn't come down as figures are updated.

[Scrumhead]

It might have even gone up! It looks like he scored 85 points so with the captaincy doubling it, he’d be up to 170 which is insane! That’s only 119 points less than the current total for one of my teams (albeit with 7 or 8 left to play.

Farrell was captain for my second team and got me 100 points yesterday, but that’s the highest total I’ve had so far. I went for Simmonds for my first team and he only got me 36 points this week.

[Raggs]

Yep, 170. He's definitely helped me out after a couple of weaker weeks.

[Raggs]

Settled at 170. I was 5th overall in game week 7, and am now 20th in the game, but there's still 2 from this league ahead of me! Still, made over 100 points on them this time round, and am now less than 100 behind.

[Stom]

Settled at 170. I was 5th overall in game week 7, and am now 20th in the game, but there's still 2 from this league ahead of me! Still, made over 100 points on them this time round, and am now less than 100 behind.

Bah. Fancy taking a break from Blackout to focus all your attentions on this? Let me win our games?

[Raggs]

Settled at 170. I was 5th overall in game week 7, and am now 20th in the game, but there's still 2 from this league ahead of me! Still, made over 100 points on them this time round, and am now less than 100 behind.

Bah. Fancy taking a break from Blackout to focus all your attentions on this? Let me win our games?

Erm... want to check my blackout logins recently? I'd guess I sign in once every 2-4 weeks, check my mails, and sign out. Did a bit more this month because the u20s manager asked me to promote a player. Can't remember the last time I set a lineup, probably over a year ago?

My team has got to be in real decline by now surely?

[Stom]

Settled at 170. I was 5th overall in game week 7, and am now 20th in the game, but there's still 2 from this league ahead of me! Still, made over 100 points on them this time round, and am now less than 100 behind.

Bah. Fancy taking a break from Blackout to focus all your attentions on this? Let me win our games?

Erm... want to check my blackout logins recently? I'd guess I sign in once every 2-4 weeks, check my mails, and sign out. Did a bit more this month because the u20s manager asked me to promote a player. Can't remember the last time I set a lineup, probably over a year ago?

My team has got to be in real decline by now surely?

You're in my league, beat me twice last year :p

[Raggs]

One firing (Roko...) one hiring, and 1 sub in my starting XV, with 3 subs on my bench. Took a bit of mucking around with who subs where to get it to work, and I'm worried I may have sacrificed a slightly better starter to ensure I had someone on the bench, so I'm hoping it works out. 6N is going to be a bit tougher, going to need to plan for that better, but as it's more weeks, firing internationals is more sensible.

[Stom]

England having Ewels as cover and retaining Itoje has screwed me over. Need to find a lock from somewhere.

Why has no-one made match threads on here? Very annoying...

[Puja]

Ouch. That was painful. Three out, four in and I still have one starter and two bench players who are on the bench for their clubs (and Dave Ward out of position as my only back row sub). A mixture of the international selections kicking my a*se (what the hell Simmons, Slade and Roko?! I picked you specifically because you *wouldn't* be involved) and some poor previous transfer decisions.

The one-out rule is costing me big-time, cause my squad is just so broad and unwieldy. Until this week, I had 5 hookers, just because I'd bought new ones when I needed them and hadn't ever had the flexibility to get rid of the old ones. I just need a few weeks of sensible selections so I can start paring down my squad size and get rid of players like Callum Chick and Will Witty.

Puja

[Puja]

England having Ewels as cover and retaining Itoje has screwed me over. Need to find a lock from somewhere.

Why has no-one made match threads on here? Very annoying...

As it turns out, the power was within you all along.

I'm busy(ish) at work. Don't know what 5p's excuse is.

Puja

[Stom]

Ouch. That was painful. Three out, four in and I still have one starter and two bench players who are on the bench for their clubs (and Dave Ward out of position as my only back row sub). A mixture of the international selections kicking my a*se (what the hell Simmons, Slade and Roko?! I picked you specifically because you *wouldn't* be involved) and some poor previous transfer decisions.

The one-out rule is costing me big-time, cause my squad is just so broad and unwieldy. Until this week, I had 5 hookers, just because I'd bought new ones when I needed them and hadn't ever had the flexibility to get rid of the old ones. I just need a few weeks of sensible selections so I can start paring down my squad size and get rid of players like Callum Chick and Will Witty.

Puja

Aye. Too much clutter. Just signed 4 and got shot of 2, but still got one sub starting and 3 on the bench like you but...2 more of my bench are injured, too

I would never have thought Lewis and Takalua were both injured together, or that Harry Williams would be picked for England...

Need a SH from somewhere, but can't afford one unless I ditch another. Need another lock/backrow, but again, can't afford unless I ditch someone.

On the plus, I saw a bug: Tom Willis is available for 2k

[Stom]

The question is:

Is it worth taking the 20point hit to bring in two players for my bench? Are those players really going to score more than 20 points between them?

[Raggs]

Doubt that's a bug... seems sensible enough.

Jack is the Willis brother that's getting some gametime, Tom is the younger brother who got a bench spot against Sarries, but I don't see him getting another appearance in the AP outside of extraordinary circumstances.

Given a lot of you are having to fire multiple players, it makes me feel a bit better about my squad. Roko being picked put him on the firing line for me, since there was one very expensive player I wanted to bring in, but view them as a hopefully long term investment. Only have $76k now, may have to check if there's anyone else starting I fancy picking up.

[Scrumhead]

I'm hoping this is where my less glamorous squad comes in to its own. Only one of the players in my 23 is on the bench (Genge) but he normally picks up more points than a lot of starters anyway!

The only thing that may scupper me slightly is that the fixture list isn't particularly kind to my squad. Ideally, the majority of my squad would have been playing the weaker sides at home, but it hasn't really panned-out like that.

My second squad which has a lot more star names has been hit pretty hard though. I let go of two players including Liam Williams and had to sign 4 players to get a 23 out. Part of me wonders whether the cheaper players I picked up (Skinner, Thorley and Adams) will justify me spending the extra points. I had a real dilemma with signing a 10, so I went for Steenson as a solid option I thought would kick me a few goals at the very least.

[Scrumhead]

This is incredibly sad, but I took a look back at my 23 from game week 1 and calculated on what it would have scored had I kept the same squad without any changes ...

I took the total scores for the starting XV, 50% of the points for the subs and double for the captain. I didn't bother with the additional points for the kicker, but I worked out that for all my time and effort in tinkering with my side, I'd be on pretty much the same points had I done absolutely NOTHING to the side at all!!!

My game week 1 side had Sinckler and Rhodes in it, who have obviously barely featured since then, so even if I had only replaced those two, I'd be ahead of the team I've spent hours trying to improve!