Draft night; an absolute minefield of statistics, brinkmanship, psychology and sheer panic. 2 hours seem to fly by in a blur, and no matter what, all logic seems to go out of the window when you see your all-time favourite but injury ridden centre appear on the draft window; after all, this could be his year! On so many occasions, preparation and planning seems to go out of the window after that first round; as the old saying goes, “no plan survives first contact”.
But I want to help, and with Gallagher Premiership draft nights starting to gather pace on Fantasy Rugby Draft ahead of the season kick-off on Friday 18th October, here are FRG’s thoughts on the busts, sleepers and deep sleepers on the Fantasy Rugby Draft rankings to help you pick up some genuine value picks as well as dodging some players who on paper look like brilliant picks but in reality could cause you some serious headaches throughout the season.
One important thing to note this season is that the Premiership Rankings on Fantasy Rugby Draft are only based on each player’s score last season, so the onus is on you the player to identify who will out perform themselves this season. What this means is that new signings or players who were out for large parts of last season can appear right down the rankings or even appear unranked outside the top 200, so there are some absolute bargains to have and it will make draft night even more fascinating.
In terms of our sleepers and busts, players who are unranked but should score well are considered sleepers, we’ll also include those who are unlikely to be on international duty so can make a full contribution across the season and be fresh with no Rugby World Cup exertions in the tank.
So, without further ado…
SLEEPERS
Olly Thorley
- Outside Back
- Gloucester
- FRD Ranking: 23
Malakai Fekitoa
- Midfielder
- Wasps
- FRD Ranking: Unranked
Chris Ashton
- Outside Back
- Sale
- FRD Ranking: Unranked
- Half Back
- Saracens
- FRD Ranking: 64
- Midfielder
- Northampton
- FRD Ranking: 52
- Outside Back
- London Irish
- FRD Ranking: Unranked
- Front Row
- Saracens
- FRD Ranking: 32
- Outside Back
- Exeter
- FRD Ranking: 62
- Outside Back
- Exeter
- FRD Ranking: Unranked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4MwIQOfcnw
DEEP SLEEPERS
- Half Back
- Wasps
- FRD Ranking: 154
Robert du Preez
- Fly Half
- Sale
- FRD Ranking: 167
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q943z9HrnZI
- Outside Back
- Sale
- FRD Ranking: 112
- Loose Forward
- Exeter
- FRD Ranking: 169
- Outside Back
- Worcester
- FRD Ranking: Unranked
- Outside Back
- Leicester
- FRD Ranking: Unranked
- Half Back
- Harlequins
- FRD Ranking: 84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq6s9esuVt8
And here’s the BUSTS, players to be wary of…
So there you go! Mark these guys on your draft lists and best of luck with your draft nights!
If you have never played Fantasy Rugby Draft before, you can check it out at http://www.fantasyrugbydraft.com/, and if you need a bit more insight as to how the game works, check out our overview here.
If you are playing Fantasy Rugby Draft and are looking for a helping hand for your Fantasy Rugby Draft team, the good guys over at FRD have a hugely useful Manager Pro feature (what is Manager Pro you ask? Look no further…)
You can buy Manager PRO here for the Premiership for a bargain price of just NZ$24.95 (Roughly GBP £13), an absolute steal, so make sure you get on it; it’s a gamechanger.
In addition, if you are looking to take your league to the next level, I’d highly recommend you and your league mates all chipping in to get League Pro. League Pro allows you to configure your league’s draft order, configure the make up of your league’s pools and above all else let’s you crown the Wooden Spoon winner aka the winner of the Sacko Bracket, by having bracket for the worst performing teams in the league. It’s an awesome addition that really keeps all the players in your league fully committed for the whole season. League PRO is available for NZ$34.00, which works out as NZ$3.40 or GBP£1.75 per player in the league.
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Get free tickets to The Rugby Show
The Rugby Show is a two-day gathering at the Ricoh Arena, home of Wasps, in July 2020. The Rugby Show already has a fantastic range of phenomenal speakers from across the professional game. The likes of Lawrence Dallaglio, Maggie Alphonsi, current England World Cup duo, Joe Marler and George Kruis and World Cup winner Sarah Hunter will be talking about their own experiences, about coping with injury, maintaining fitness, nutrition, providing demonstrations on how to improve your skills as a player and more. The line-up also includes recent MMA convert James Haskell, Premiership regulars Jimmy Gopperth and Tommy Taylor to name a few. Registration has now gone live and as an ambassador of the Rugby Show, Fantasy Rugby Geek is offering you FREE ENTRY to the event (which usually costs £15 for an adult ticket). Click this link https://the-rugby-show-2020.reg.buzz/fantasy-rugby-geek and enter the following code TRS20GRASSROOTS to book your FREE tickets now!
Looking for more Fantasy Rugby insight and Resources?
New for the 2019/20 season, we are proud to present the The Fantasy Rugby Handbook. An exhaustive collection of wisdom and experience gained from over a decade of fantasy rugby playing. Primarily aimed at less experienced players but with enough nuggets of wisdom and insight for even the most grizzled fantasy rugby veteran. There is something here for all players. The eBook is available to download now for just £3.99 on Gumroad as a PDF and on Amazon in Kindle format (Free on Kindle Unlimited) – check it out!
If you want some more sources to help you finalise your decisions, go to our resources page where you’ll find all the 2019 Rugby World Cup fantasy games, all the stats sources, injury news, team news, fantasy relevant rugby betting odds and tons of other useful information.
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