The Rugby Magazine - Fantasy Rugby

[Shiny]

Scores now finalised:

Pool A:

Reigate Royals - 518pts
Scrum of the Earth - 517pts
The Honeybadgers - 487pts

Pool B:

London Platypodes - 527pts
The Pujover Tries - 500pts
Switches Selection - 494pts

Bloggs vs. Peej for the trophy.

Gutted ... didn’t even make the final by 1 damn point.

Christ, that was close!

There was only one players worth of score in it for all of our individual matchups. Good mini competition.

[Peej]

Haha, when you remove most of the strategic choices and the budget elements that's when I actually do quite well. Even then, I didn't do as well as I could have done.

[Scrumhead]

I made two last minute changes that did me no favours. I had Thacker starting at 7 and Dunn on the bench and then swapped in Earl thinking he usually scores highly when he starts. That cost me about 30pts. Also switched McConnochie for Cokanasiga on the bench which cost me another 10pts.

[Scrumhead]

After scraping past me in the Semi Final, Bloggs has gone one to beat Peej by 12 points to take the Rugby Rebels trophy.

I guess I can take some minor consolation from losing to the eventual winner.

In the 6 Nations competition, Peej is currently topping the table going in to the final round with a healthy, but not insurmountable 46 point lead.

[Puja]

I finished in the top 100 for the first time! Very pleased with that.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Nice work. This game gets harder every year, so improving year on year is a big achievement. I dropped from 27th last year to 42nd this year ... Top 50 is good but I was really hoping for top 20.

[Shiny]

I set my standards and targets low and still failed to achieve them. I am the fantasy rugby version of Worcester Warriors, always lower third of the table and while not in the relegation zone I'm not going to worry the top half of the table. Still, on the bright side I will never be disappointed with my campaign and can only really get better. I already have a plan and strategy for next season (in 4 weeks).

Also it goes to show the ridiculously high standards in our little league. In the other leagues I am in I am top three.

[Peej]

Wow, i didn't even think to update my team for the 6 Nations one this past weekend!

I had a shocker of a final in the Prem - I think I got my lowest ever score!

[Scrumhead]

No-one scored well from the Premiership final. I would have won it with 300pts if I’d not lost in the semi.

Round 4 of the 6N was rubbish for me. I’d forgotten about May scoring 1 and Ntamack scoring 0! Ringrose going off early didn’t help me either. I need a flawless weekend this time.

[Bloggs]

Very close in the final Peej! I will make my own trophy at home...

[Peej]

I doff my virtual cap to you, Bloggs. Well played, sir!

I do enjoy the fantasy rugby, but I also enjoy the chance to chat and banter about it all here, which makes it far more fun so thanks very much, gents.

[Scrumhead]

Likewise. It’s just a shame a few more of the active posters don’t play.

Our league is good and competitive, but there only seems to be 6 or 7 of us actively playing and posting.

I never see a good chunk of the people in the league posting here.

[switchskier]

Yup, enjoy the league, even if I'm a bit rubbish in comparison. It would be good to start the campaign now to get more players for next season.

Everyone's best/worst signing of the season? I hung on for far too long with a bunch of Exeter props that o thought should be good but that never scored well. Conversely Oli Hoskins was an unsung hero for me.

[Puja]

Indeed. I appreciate having you guys to complain about it with on here. Especially since, as Shiny noted, we're a very high-standard league and it's hard to find other people taking it seriously. I joined the private league of my rugby club this year and have been clear at the top for the entire season, ending up 3,000 points clear by the end.

Yup, enjoy the league, even if I'm a bit rubbish in comparison. It would be good to start the campaign now to get more players for next season.

Everyone's best/worst signing of the season? I hung on for far too long with a bunch of Exeter props that o thought should be good but that never scored well. Conversely Oli Hoskins was an unsung hero for me.

I bought into Jonny Hill and Jack Willis at the start of the season when they were laughably underpriced and one of them was captain nearly every week. Plus Alex Mitchell turned out to be a very useful gamble. Radradra wasn't exactly a surprise, but he was stupidly underpriced at about £260k at the restart - made about £100k profit when I sold him for the final.

In terms of disasters, I signed Paolo Odogwu shortly after the restart and couldn't get rid of him for about 5 weeks because he kept getting starts/benches and I needed to sell higher value players to even try and get an XV out. I don't believe he ever scored above 6 points in a round for me. Then there was the disaster that was Josh Hodge - hyped up by Baxter, so I signed him while Hogg was injured and he managed to avoid the ball at all costs for 2 games in a row before getting injured in the 5th minute of the third weekend I had him.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

I made loads of mistakes, but biggest single error last season was going for Goode over Piutau at the very start. Goode promptly got injured and my other bad (or unlucky) decisions meant I needed to use the money from Goode to shore up other areas.

My best signing was probably Jonny Hill as well.

The top player averages 499 per week. To get close to that, you need your starting XV and captain (double points) to score an average of 25 points each and your bench to score an average of 12 each. That gives you 496. Hill is one of relatively few players who can be consistently relied upon to get 25+.

There are a few bits I’ve observed that generally work well, but I’m keeping those to myself!

The guy who is ‘Scotty’s Chiefs’ (11th) has changed my thinking on transfers a little bit. He’s more cavalier than I am and makes better decisions on when to drop 20 points which he generally gets back. Holding back on transfers has cost me on a few occasions.

Next season will be interesting - particularly if the likes of Jonny Hill and Jack Willis establish themselves with England.

[Shiny]

Yup, enjoy the league, even if I'm a bit rubbish in comparison. It would be good to start the campaign now to get more players for next season.

Everyone's best/worst signing of the season? I hung on for far too long with a bunch of Exeter props that o thought should be good but that never scored well. Conversely Oli Hoskins was an unsung hero for me.

Best signing for me was probably Jonny Hill, worst is hard to say as I do tend to get rid of non performers pretty quickly. I'm already thinking of a base player group for next season especially when you consider that most internationals wont be at their clubs for any length of time until after the next six nations.

[Scrumhead]

It would be good to start the campaign now to get more players for next season.

We definitely should. I’m kind of surprised there aren’t more active players on this forum. It’s a great opportunity to put what you know (or think you know) in to something measurable.

I’ve actually found that the game has changed the way I watch rugby. I pay a lot more attention to what individual players are doing and I’m a lot more interested in watching random games like Worcester vs. London Irish (for example) when I’ve got some skin in the game. It’s given me a different opinion on quite a few players.

[switchskier]

It would be good to start the campaign now to get more players for next season.

We definitely should. I’m kind of surprised there aren’t more active players on this forum. It’s a great opportunity to put what you know (or think you know) in to something measurable.

I’ve actually found that the game has changed the way I watch rugby. I pay a lot more attention to what individual players are doing and I’m a lot more interested in watching random games like Worcester vs. London Irish (for example) when I’ve got some skin in the game. It’s given me a different opinion on quite a few players.

Absolutely. Ollie Hassell-Collins was a cheap Winget who appeared to be starting 12 months ago, but having actually watched him a bit I think he's got the tools to play international rugby (some work on his passing is required)

[Puja]

It would be good to start the campaign now to get more players for next season.

We definitely should. I’m kind of surprised there aren’t more active players on this forum. It’s a great opportunity to put what you know (or think you know) in to something measurable.

I’ve actually found that the game has changed the way I watch rugby. I pay a lot more attention to what individual players are doing and I’m a lot more interested in watching random games like Worcester vs. London Irish (for example) when I’ve got some skin in the game. It’s given me a different opinion on quite a few players.

I think what we'll do is start a new thread just before the new season start (so people aren't put off by coming in at page 59, as well as for the sake of the poor servers), and see if we can drum some new people in.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Sounds good. I thought Oakboy and jngf would be dying to pit their wits against me?

[Bloggs]

Sounds good. I thought Oakboy and jngf would be dying to pit their wits against me?

Think of the back rowers in jngf’s team

[Scrumhead]

Sadly he won’t be able to pick Itoje at 8 though ...