The world of fantasy rugby appears simple to those who have never played, and rugby fans all over the web seem to have a myriad fantasy rugby tips, but dig deeper and it is deceptively complex. On the face of it, it’s just like any other fantasy sports game; pick a load of players who are rewarded with points based on their performance and your fantasy team’s success is based on your total points scored. Pick the best players in the competition and win! What could be simpler?!
In reality, this simplicity could not be further from the truth. There are a myriad of additional factors to consider when selecting your team. However, at Fantasy Rugby Geek, we want to help, and this guide will help you identify the 10 key rules needed to master in order to take you from a rookie to a contender to a true fantasy rugby expert…
Rule 1: Read the rules
Seems obvious right? Yet so few people do it! By having the look at rules, you will spot loopholes and advantages that will put you ahead of swathes of your competitors. How many points are awarded for certain actions? How many players count towards the overall score? Does your bench win points? Do you need a single nominated kicker or can anyone win kick points? Is there a captain rule? How many free transfers are you allowed? How much do transfers cost (is it worth the penalty)? There are many ways to gain an edge by analysing the rules, so do yourself a favour before you do anything else when starting a game and dissect the rules.
Rule 2: Make sure all your players are actually playing
When building your team for the first time, the temptation is just to go for the famous big name players. The reality in Rugby, being such a physical sport, is that injuries will happen and will happen regularly. Most games don’t flag when a player is injured, so it is essential that that as a player you check starting lineups, keep across any injury doubts and injury news, and if in doubt always pick a player who is comfortable first choice in their position or in their club/team. Fortunately most sides these days announce their starting lineups 48 hours before the game, giving you plenty of time to select a starting group of players. Likewise, as the season progresses, wait until all teams have announced their lineups for each week’s matches, as you don’t want to be wasting free transfers bringing in players before you know that they are definitely playing. Bear in mind that occasionally players will fail fitness tests in the immediate lead up to the matches so keep an eye on any news coming out of each team’s camp. To stay across injury and selection news, make sure you access and bookmark
Fantasy Rugby Geek’s resources page.
Rule 3: Check the scoring model and build your team around the stats
As mentioned in Rule 1, thoroughly understanding the rules is critical, and nowhere is this more important than understanding where the points will be scored. Every game is different; some games only award points for tries, assists and winning, while other games are far more granular in awarding points for tackles made, lineouts won, metres gained, defenders beaten, scrums won etc. Look at the points available and pick your team accordingly. For example, if lots of points are on offer for metres gained (which can often be a goldmine) then check out the stats to understand who the big ball carriers and gainers are in each position, and load your team up. Likewise, games often penalise you heavily for penalties conceded, yellow cards and red cards, so keep an eye of those players with a reputation and history of ill-discipline and don’t let them near your side! Again
Fantasy Rugby Geek’s resources page will link to a number of relevant statistics sites to allow you to do your research.
Rule 4: Keep an eye out for out of position players
Games have to assign players to be attributed to one position, this is usually Outside Backs (occasionally broken down to wing and fullback), Centres/Midfielders, Fly Halves, Scrum Halves, Loose Forwards (occasionally broken down to number 8 and flankers), Locks and Front Row (occassionally broken down to props and hookers). In reality you may find players playing out of position and this can have a beneficial effect on your team. Often wingers or fullbacks have higher scoring potential than centres, so if you have a player classified as a centre but starting in the back 3, then you should sign them up. Likewise, often you will see locks and occasionally hookers lining up in the back row, this will potentially lend themselves to more opportunities in the loose than their respective peers in the tight five, and so a higher points scoring potential. If you see this happen, then sign them up. There can also be the opposite scenario of course, if a fullback finds himself in the centres or at fly half, so keep an eye on this too.
Rule 5: Spot the bargains
If you are playing a salary cap style game (all players have a price and you have a limited budget to build your team) or a draft style game (you are in a league with a limited number of players, and you must select your team one-by-one with no team having the same players), always scope out the long tail of the player list to identify any bargains. For salary style games, this could be cheap players who you know will start, have a proven track record at that level or who may be due an extended run in the team due to a big name injury. For draft games, look at the deeper ranks of the player rankings, particularly as this is where you may find new signing or hot prospects. In either case these may not be the glamorous big names but they can be a tremendous source of vital points.
Rule 6: Choose your captain wisely
A large number of fantasy rugby games ask you to select a “captain”. The captain generally scores you double points, so it is imperative that you select a player with the highest probability of scoring big that week. To put you in the best possible position, firstly study the fixtures that week, is there a match that looks like an obvious mismatch? If so it is often a safe source of points. Then look at the scoring stats in the game, do players in a certain position tend to score more than others? If they do, then this will help you narrow down your selection. Another useful place to look at is the betting sites and their predictions for anytime tryscorer. The bookies are not often wrong, so if certain players have a particularly low anytime tryscorer odds then they should be top candidates to take the armband.
Rule 7: Check out the bookies odds
As mentioned in Rule 6, the betting companies are rarely wrong, their livelihood depends on it! As a result, the match odds provide a goldmine of data that can be used to your advantage when selecting your fantasy team. As a general rule, rugby tends to be slightly more predictable than in football, where the frequency that a favourite wins is higher than in the less predictable football. As a result, studying the handicap betting (a market where the bookies give the underdog a points advantage to level the match up) is a great way to gain a clear understanding of any mismatches. Any team given a handicap of -15 or more is considered a very comfortable favourite and should be an indication that their players will score well. Likewise, as mentioned above, the anytime tryscorer data can be invaluable, firstly for choosing your transfers, and secondly for providing a desicion making method in case you are torn between 2 players and need to start one and bench the other.
Rule 8: Get kickers in
Players who take the place kicks for their teams are a reliable source of points, they are hopefully guaranteed to get at least some extra kicking points per match. In some games, they only allow you to select one kicker (the “nominated kicker” rule), however in other games, such as Fantasy Rugby Draft, you can select as many kickers as you can bring in. If this is the case in the game you are playing, then load up. It’s easy points. A word of warning however, make sure that if you are playing a nominated kicker game, that your nominated kicker is actually on kicks. A lot of teams have more than one recognised kicker (e.g. think England with Owen Farrell and George Ford), so be certain that the player you have as nominated kicker will be on kicks, and if in doubt, go for a safe bet above a player who has an attractive fixture but isn’t guaranteed to be on kicks.
Rule 9: Waiver wire and Team announcement time on Draft games
If you are playing a draft style fantasy rugby game, then the most important thing to do is to keep a close eye on the waiver wire throughout the season. There are always absolute bargains that can appear here (including new signings that are quietly slipped into the game without fanfare). Make sure you check out the upcoming matches for the weekend at the start of the week and scour the waiver wire for potential signings with a good fixture at the weekend. Pay extra attention to the free agents as well around the time that team announcements are made, this is when Draft managers swamp the site to see who in their team is playing and if there are gaps, then the pool of free agents gets ravaged as managers look to pick up the best possible starters from the remaining players. Get this right and it will pay off big time. Keep an eye on the team announcements on the
Fantasy Rugby Geek Twitter Lists to catch the team announcements as they come in. Also keep an eye on
Fantasy Rugby Geek’s weekly tips after lineups are published for our thoughts on the players who are likely to go well.
Rule 10: Plan ahead for fixtures, byes and international breaks
Planning always pays off. Keep an eye on the fixture list when making your transfers to ensure that you get the best bang for your buck. If a certain team has a good run of games coming up, then bring their players in. Conversely a side could have an attractive fixture that week but follows up with some tough games against the top dogs, it could be worth reconsidering! Not only that, but certain competitions like Super Rugby often have bye weeks, so make sure you are well prepared and have sufficient cover come the weeks when some of your team aren’t playing. Finally, the international windows can often wreak havoc on your team. In particular, the Aviva Premiership, Pro 14 and Top 14 during the Autumn Internationals and Six Nations, when the leagues continue during the tournaments. You will be well rewarded if you spend the weeks leading up to the internationals, slowly filtering the big international names out of your squad.
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