The Rugby Magazine - Fantasy Rugby

[Peej]

I have three scrum halves in my team this week, only two of which are starting. But have a 24 players who should all play at some point across the weekend.

Anybody know what is up with Marchant?

[Shiny]

I have three scrum halves in my team this week, only two of which are starting. But have a 24 players who should all play at some point across the weekend.

Anybody know what is up with Marchant?

I wonder if his new loan club have asked that he does not be thrashed before arrival so Quins are resting him.

[Puja]

I have three scrum halves in my team this week, only two of which are starting. But have a 24 players who should all play at some point across the weekend.

Anybody know what is up with Marchant?

I wonder if his new loan club have asked that he does not be thrashed before arrival so Quins are resting him.

He's out injured for a good few weeks, I believe. I ditched him the other week.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Yeah. Marchant is injured so is unlikely to play for Quins again this season.

With him injured/leaving and Beaumont injured, my plans to boost my side with some big post RWC signings is well and truly shelved.

Managed to get 15 starters out but most of my bench are actually on the bench so I’m not expecting to have a particularly good week.

[Shiny]

I have more red on my bench that a set of broken traffic lights.

[Scrumhead]

Mine is mostly grey rather than red, but if I make a total of more than 20 points from that 8 I’ll be surprised.

[Peej]

Well I had a good week, but most people seem to have had excellent weeks!

[Scrumhead]

Yep. It was my best week of the season but several players in our league had 500+ point hauls which is impressive.

As always, choice of captain is massive. Anyone who went for Thacker had an excellent day.

[Shiny]

Well I had a good week, but most people seem to have had excellent weeks!

I think that just about sums it up. Any other week and I would be well chuffed with my result but everyone else did so much better. The highlight of my week was taking the captaincy off Thacker as he has been a bit quiet lately and giving it to Willis.

[Peej]

I had Thacker but had Piutau was captain. Sums up my captaincy selections - so close, but not quite good enough

[Scrumhead]

Yep. I measure my ‘squad efficiency’ on a weekly basis by working out what the maximum I could have scored with the players I have and comparing that to what I actually scored. I’ve come close to 100% on a few occasions but typically hover just on the right side of 90%, ‘so close, but not quite good enough’.

Bad decisions I made at the outset are still haunting me now with injuries to regular point scorers like Beaumont and Marchant scuppering my plans to correct them ...

Marcus Watson is my biggest dog of a signing. I went for him off the back of his end to last season and his preseason form, but so far he’s averaged 4.5pts p/wk. Awful. Although I guarantee the week I sell him, he’ll have a storming performance.

[Scrumhead]

I’ve a couple of gambles to improve my squad this week rather than making the big signing I was lining up. I hope it works out!

[Peej]

Didn't change my team last week, and this week am struggling due to injuries. Can only get 23 out, and a fair number of subs. Hoping my Bris contingent can score big

[Puja]

Last week, I dropped 20 points to sign Matt Proctor. He scored -4 and is now injured. Hooray!

Puja

[Scrumhead]

I think rotation is going to screw me over this week. I signed Jonny Hill last week and he gets rotated straight away!

I’m not doing badly, but I feel like I’m constantly compromising rather than putting out sides I’m happy with.

I’m kicking myself over some of the poor signings I’ve made and I need to raise some cash, but I’m also nervous about selling my bit part players like Ben Curry because they could be valuable during the 6N.

[Puja]

I think rotation is going to screw me over this week. I signed Jonny Hill last week and he gets rotated straight away!

I’m not doing badly, but I feel like I’m constantly compromising rather than putting out sides I’m happy with.

I’m kicking myself over some of the poor signings I’ve made and I need to raise some cash, but I’m also nervous about selling my bit part players like Ben Curry because they could be valuable during the 6N.

Ditto on all counts. I've had a nightmare last two weeks where every single decision I've made has been the wrong one. I've gone bold this week and sacrificed 20 points to swap Nathan Hughes (who has been utter shite since I brought him in) for Ellis Genge (who I think will be a high points scorer now he's back in the swing of things).

So, apologies for Genge's inevitable injury and everyone else should probably put Hughes as their captain this week.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

My biggest annoyance is that in my preseason debate over whether to sign Goode or Piutau, I chose the former. I’m about 240 points shy of the leader and I think getting that one decision right would have put me 100+ points closer. The rest is down to good decisions on who to pick as captain and luck with injuries.

[switchskier]

After a really ropey start my team is starting to come together - only two of the 23 aren't starting. My problem is that my outside backs have been inconsistent and I always pick the wrong ones for each week. So this week I suggest starting kilbridge and murley and benching Collins and Minozzi.

[switchskier]

I think rotation is going to screw me over this week. I signed Jonny Hill last week and he gets rotated straight away!

I’m not doing badly, but I feel like I’m constantly compromising rather than putting out sides I’m happy with.

I’m kicking myself over some of the poor signings I’ve made and I need to raise some cash, but I’m also nervous about selling my bit part players like Ben Curry because they could be valuable during the 6N.

Ditto on all counts. I've had a nightmare last two weeks where every single decision I've made has been the wrong one. I've gone bold this week and sacrificed 20 points to swap Nathan Hughes (who has been utter shite since I brought him in) for Ellis Genge (who I think will be a high points scorer now he's back in the swing of things).

So, apologies for Genge's inevitable injury and everyone else should probably put Hughes as their captain this week.

Puja

Good call.

[Scrumhead]

It looks like it’ll be a high scoring week. Someone (sadly not me) has already scored 511 points with a few more players to start!

[Peej]

I had a good week, but not stellar. Let down by Bris players, though I made a good call with captain this week (that's two in a row!), but I had a couple of absentees due to rotation, and a few bench players which dragged me down a bit

[Scrumhead]

Same really. In most weeks 490 points would be good, but for round 8 it was distinctly average.

I haven’t made any disastrous choices with my captain (so far) but I’ve only got it bang on once in 8 rounds. I looked back at the scores and picking highest scoring player as captain would have given me an extra 73 points (+9 p/wk). If I’d done that I’d be in 12th instead of 24th.

[Peej]

Wow, really difficult this week. Have had to take a 20 point hit, partly just to ditch a player that hasn't been available all season, but also just to get enough players together to put a competitive team in. Even then, plenty of 0s coming my way

[Puja]

I managed to scrape together a XV of starters without taking a points hit, but I don't know one could necessarily say that I've made many tactical decisions this week!. My bench is mostly replacements, but at least only one red mark. Might not be my best week this week.

Equivocating between Simmonds and Dombrandt for captain, as I think they'll both have something to prove. I just know I'll pick the wrong one.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Wow, really difficult this week. Have had to take a 20 point hit, partly just to ditch a player that hasn't been available all season, but also just to get enough players together to put a competitive team in. Even then, plenty of 0s coming my way

Yeah. I’ll be similar. I can put out a team of starters with a couple more starters on the bench, but I’ll probably have 3 or 4 zero point players.