The Rugby Magazine - Fantasy Rugby

[Scrumhead]

The values seem to be fluctuating a lot more for some players. I had my eye on a couple of signings that I was basically priced out of going for.

[Scrumhead]

I am FARKED for this round. Just seen the teams announced so far and I already have 11 out of my 32 players who definitely haven’t been selected. My one back selected so far is Nick David who is starting in a green Worcester XV facing Exeter’s first XV ...

[Puja]

Apparently Quins vs Saints teams aren't being announced until tomorrow. Bit of a scramble to get our XXIII out before the deadline!

Puja

[Scrumhead]

The deadlines now work in the same way they did for the RWC. The only players ‘locked’ today will be those playing for Sale and Bristol. You can change any players for the subsequent games until kick off.

[Peej]

Ah that's a relief, as Wasps aren't announcing their team until Sunday. Still, doesn't help if you're trying to decide between a Wasps player and another benched player if you don't know if one of them will even be in the 23.

[Peej]

Although I currently have no centres or back 3 players....

[Peej]

As an aside, which of your current players has risen most in value, and which has dropped? Mine are Umaga on +24%, and Furbank on -15% - which basically makes him too cheap to sell!

[Scrumhead]

Ah that's a relief, as Wasps aren't announcing their team until Sunday. Still, doesn't help if you're trying to decide between a Wasps player and another benched player if you don't know if one of them will even be in the 23.

True, but I don’t think there’s any other way to do it? The Wasps team should be named in time for tomorrow’s games.

Highest increase for me is Umaga (I had him earlier so it’s 19.9% for me) and biggest drop is Ollie Lawrence (15.7%).

It looks to me like the rotation means the players’ salaries are fluctuating with selection. I’d planned to sign Loader and then his value shot up to £188k so I had to pass. Now he’s back to £165k after not playing in mid-week.

[Peej]

Yeah, even someone like Ben Earl, who does well on points, has dropped 10%.

[Scrumhead]

I’m similar to you. Depending on the props, I should be OK on the pack (hopefully anyway ...). It’s the backs I’m struggling with, so I had to make an early call on Luke James. Currently I only have 1 winger, a sub fullback and I’m not sure I’ll have a 10.

Forget about the bench altogether ...

Definitely not going to be a high scoring week.

[switchskier]

I'm hoping that I'll get a starting hooker from the wasps against bath game, but if the selection gods are against me, am I able to sell a Worcester hooker after their game today?

I've currently only got seven players selected so some surgery needed

[Scrumhead]

As I understand it, a player is only locked if they’re selected for a game/in your lineup.

As long as you don’t pick the Worcester hooker in your 23 you should be fine to sell them after the game.

[Peej]

I've traded some players out that I didn't really want to, and now have 19 of my 23 starting, with question marks over Wasps and Bath players and whether they play at all. If they aren't selected, my alternatives will already have played, and I don't think I can swap them in can I?

[Scrumhead]

No - you can’t swap a player out once they’ve played. I often wish I could !

[Peej]

Well I wondered if that's where I was going wrong, but no, my own incompetence it is!

[Peej]

An excellent round in the end, thanks to Johnny Hill (though I changed my captain from him to Akker van der Merwe at 19.25 on Friday!). Have I made up any ground in our league? Hell no.

[Scrumhead]

I had my second best week this season but I’m still frustrated because it could have been so much better. I was going to buy Thorley but decided against it as I was too fixated on having a full XV of starters.

I thought he would score well, but I was expecting a try or two and 30-40 points not 63! I signed Kibirige and Matavesi instead as I thought they’d collectively even it out whilst giving me some further insulation on rotation. As it happens, they scored 18 points between them ...

Another example of me making a bad decision that means I’ve done fine but made no advance on the table or catching up those ahead of me. I was aiming for top 20 and I’m 100 points short with 5 rounds to go. Probably not going to make it ...

[Puja]

Here's a question which has been bugging me - say a referee sticks out his hand for penalty advantage and we go through 12 phases before coming back for the original offence. Do the actions in those 12 phases count towards a players' points or are they scrubbed from existence because they didn't count in the game? For someone like Underhill, 12 phases could be 4 tackles and 4 points, but I don't know whether they count if we go back to the penalty.

Puja

[Peej]

That is a good question!

Similarly, does a player hanging on the back of the maul holding the ball have the maul's metres counted as his own?

[Scrumhead]

All the scoring is based upon Opta stats. I’m not sure whether they separate data for any interactions under penalty advantage?

[Puja]

I can't work out what would make more sense. On the one hand, the 4 tackles made by my hypothetical Underhill under advantage are just as valid as tackles made anywhere else on the pitch cause they're still stopping an attack. On the other, does the ruck turnover that results in the play going back to the original penalty count? It's a good turnover, but it doesn't benefit his team. Or if there's a speculative pass that's intercepted and someone makes a clean break before the ref blows his whistle, does that count? Does the passer lose points for giving away the ball, even though the ball isn't actually given away?

Puja

[Puja]

I thought I was going to get a squad together easily this week, but the vagaries of selection left me without a lock/flank, a full-back, and a bench hooker, lock, and back-row.

With a bit of work, I've managed to get 22 starters and one red dot on the bench, but it involved a bit of number-crunching!

Puja

[Scrumhead]

My bench is mostly made up of players who actually are on the bench but I have a starting XV I’m reasonably happy with, even if my OCD nature is tortured by seeing Dan du Preez at 7.

I’m trying to play it fairly cute and build my squad carefully to manage the rotations. I’d rather consistently decent weeks than boom and bust.

[Puja]

My bench is mostly made up of players who actually are on the bench but I have a starting XV I’m reasonably happy with, even if my OCD nature is tortured by seeing Dan du Preez at 7.

I’m trying to play it fairly cute and build my squad carefully to manage the rotations. I’d rather consistently decent weeks than boom and bust.

I had a strategy of buying expensive players where I could at the beginning of the restarted season, so that I could sell them for cheaper players when I needed. So far, Piutau and Simmonds have gone and I miss them both. Jonny Gray went this week. I suspect Jonny May might be next gameweek's victim to buy in another 3 players!

Just looked at the cup draw - I suspect that my run is coming to an end this week. "Kruis Control, why does that name sound familiar? They're not in the RR leag... oh no, they're just top of the entire game. Goodie!"

Puja

[Scrumhead]

I kind of went for a bit of both ... I still have a lot of the more expensive players (Simmonds, Genge, Piutau and Robson for example), but the rest of my squad has some pretty unheralded players like Nick David or Glen Young.