Welcome to Day 7 of FRG’s Fantasy Rugby World Cup Diary! A daily post during the World Cup in which I will be previewing the upcoming games, looking back at the previous matches and sharing the progress, trials and tribulations of all my teams across the 4 games live for the World Cup…
Match Day 7 Review
There were two games today and both were one-sided victories for European sides over North American teams.
First up, Canada were put to the sword by Italy, some truly outstanding performances from the Azzuri, including Jake Polledri (1 assist, 106m carried, 3 clean breaks and FOURTEEN defenders beaten (!)) Braam Steyn (1 try, 58m carried, 5 defenders beaten, 6 lineout wins and 10 successful tackles), Dean Budd (1 try, 29m carried, 2 defenders beaten, 5 lineout wins) and Matteo Minozzi (1 try, 120m carried, 2 clean breaks and 5 defenders beaten). Sterner tests lie ahead for Italy with South Africa and New Zealand next up. As for Canada, things are only going to get worse, with a quick turnaround and a well-rested All Blacks next Wednesday. Be very afraid.
Over in Kobe, England put the sword to a USA side who were reduced to 14 men after the sending off of John Quill. Standout performances for England came from the 2-try Joe Cokanasiga, Ellis Genge (71 points in TRM after his monster carries), George Ford, Lewis Ludlam and Luke Cowan-Dickie who continued his amazing try-scoring form.
No games tomorrow, this will be me…
This is my life now#RWC2019 pic.twitter.com/Synt9lbkl0
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 23, 2019
FRG’s Teams…
The Rugby Magazine – Points: 664 – Ranking: 260
It was a good start to the day to see Joe Schmidt name a full strength Ireland side for Saturday, and consequently I could keep the surgery to my side at a minimum, able to put out a full squad for this round (assuming no major Georgia changes) without incurring any points hits and maintaining a couple of free squad spots for the arrival of my All Blacks next gameweek. Today went well, with a great haul for Braam Steyn, although Joe Tafete’e disappointed.
I’ve now completed the lineup for Gameweek 2 with Guido Petti taking the captain’s armband and Elton Jantjies taking kicking duty.
SuperBru – Points: 301.5 – Ranking: 7,011
A great start to Round 2 for me, with excellent hauls from Cokanisiga, Vunipola and Steyn and some reasonable contributions from Daly and Ferrari. I’ve gone big on South Africa with Makazole Mapimpi as my Round 2 Captain and Elton Jantjies as my kicker.
My full Round 2 transfers are…
- Radradra (Out) – Cokanasiga (In)
- May (Out) – Mapimpi (In)
- Tupou (Out) – Daly (In)
- Itoje (Out) – Petti (In)
- Marx (Out) – Montoya (In)
- Pollard (Out) – E Jantjies (In)
The Daily Telegraph – Points: 549 – Ranking: 473
A good day with Braam Steyn putting in a cracking captain’s performance and Vunipola and Cokanasiga scoring well (and some token points from Watson anf Taufete’e). Haven’t fully decided on what I’ll do for Saturday, but will probably use a good portion of my remaining transfer allocation on some South African coverage.
The Irish Times – Points: 365 – Ranking: 2326
A nice little bump to my points total from Braam Steyn, and a few extras from Owen Farrell have helped bring my Round 1 total to a respectable 365. Could be better, but equally could have been a LOT worse. Tomorrow I will think about my 3 Round 2 transfers, probably will involve dropping England players (who have a blank) for Jacob Stockdale + 2 x South Africa.
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