Fantasy Rugby Tips, Picks and Pre-match Thoughts – Guinness Six Nations 2020 Round 4

Fantasy Rugby Geekon

Welcome to our third instalment of our weekly pre-match updates for the Guinness 2020 Six Nations where we analyse the weekend’s lineups, crunch the stats and see what the bookies are thinking to help you optimise your lineups for peak performance this weekend! By the time you finish this article you should have all the insight you need to score big fantasy points this weekend.

Changes to games as a result of match cancellations of Ireland v Italy in Round 4 and Italy v England in Round 5

The very unfortunate cancellations of Ireland v Italy and Italy v England have resulted in a lot of fantasy managers being unclear as to what will happen to their selected players in these matches. All the games have taken different approaches so please see here for a summary of the proposed adjustments…

The Rugby Magazine

Official statement from The Rugby Magazine…

“Just to keep all of you Six Nations DoRs up to date on the Ireland v Italy game, with regards to our fantasy, we are considering this game as cancelled… 

…We have a mechanism in place that awards the average player gameweek score to each of the players involved in any cancelled fixture (this score is the average of all the scores achieved by players playing in the gameweek, not the average score for the individual player, or the average score for your team). This means you can effectively still choose those players involved in the cancelled fixture and earn points (or release them and choose others if you think they’ll perform better; up to you)…“

The Irish Times

No statement as yet, but FRG reached out to the game support this week, and this was their feedback…

“Hey there, Thanks for getting in touch. This game will be removed from this round, and, pending the re-arranged date, it will be added into a later round. We apologise for any confusion here.”

Superbru

Official statement from Suberbru…

“There will be An increase to the permitted number of transfers and players allowed from a single team. Ireland v Italy has been removed from Round 4 of our fantasy game meaning both teams are on a ‘bye’. As a result, we have increased the permitted number of transfers from four to SIX and you are now allowed up to EIGHT players from a single team rather than six. This is also the case for Round 5 of our fantasy game due to the assumption that Italy v England will also be postponed. Even if it isn’t, the increased transfers and team limit will still apply.”

ESPN

Official statement from ESPN…

“Ireland vs Italy has been postponed. As a result, we have increased the number of free transfers ahead of Round 4 to six.”

The Official Game

Official statement from the Six Nations game is here…

“…we have put in place two special rules for Fantasy Rugby players.

1) Players from any teams involved in Postponed matches will earn 10 points if you keep them in your starting XV (5 points on the bench).

2) In all Leagues you will be able to select 1 additional player from the same nation (That means a maximum of 5 players per nation instead of 4 in the standard mode).

Rounds will conclude at the normal times for Rounds 4 and 5 (Sunday evening) with points totals for all players calculated at that stage. Points from re-scheduled matches will not be factored in to the Fantasy game…“

A full summary of the proposed changes of all the games can be found here.

What will go down…

Into Round 4 and with just two games being played, the opportunities to steal a march over your fantasy rugby rivals are drying up. That said we have two games this weekend that could result in some great attacking rugby and points potential.

First up at Twickenham on Saturday, England will be looking to end their tournament on a high at home to Wales. Wales have been on the receiving end of some unfortunate injuries while England will be hoping to continue where they left off against Ireland with another convincing win. The bookies have given England a an expected 12 point margin, but in truth it could work out a bit closer than that with Wales looking to make amends for a disappointing Six Nations thus far.

In the Sunday game, champions-elect France travel up to Murrayfield with hopes of a Grand Slam still alive. While a trip to Edinburgh is always tough for any team in the Six Nations, the French team demonstrated against Wales that they have what it takes to secure some big wins on the road, and should do the same against Gregor Townsend’s men this weekend. The bookies agree, expecting them to win by 6.

Top 10 most likely to score (Odds via Paddy Power)

  • 1 – Jonny May (England) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 1.83
  • 2= – Anthony Watson (England) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 2.5
  • 2= – Damian Penaud (France) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 2.5
  • 4 – Gael Fickou (France) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 2.75
  • 5 – Manu Tuilagi (England) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 2.8
  • 6 – Virimi Vakatawa (France) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 3.1
  • 7 – Elliot Daly (England) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 3.3
  • 8= – Liam Williams (Wale) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 3.4
  • 8= – George North (Wales) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 3.4
  • 10= – Antoine Dupont (France) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 3.5
  • 10= – Gregory Alldritt (France) – Anytime tryscorer odds: 3.5

Expected to go well

*Players who are starting favourably out of position (i.e. Hooker in back row, Centre on wing, etc.)

HOOKERS

  • Jamie George (England)
  • Julian Marchand (France)

PROPS

  • Zander Fagerson (Scotland)
  • Rory Sutherland (Scotland)
  • Kyle Sinckler (England)

LOCKS

  • Paul Willemse (France)
  • Maro Itoje (England)
  • Courtney Lawes (England)*

BACK ROW

  • Charles Ollivon (France)
  • Gregory Alldritt (France)
  • Josh Navidi (Wales)
  • Tom Curry (England)

SCRUM-HALF

  • Ali Price (Scotland)
  • Antoine Dupont (France)

FLY HALF

  • Romain Ntamack (France)
  • George Ford (England)

CENTRES

  • Gael Fickou (France)*
  • Manu Tuilagi (England)
  • Virimi Vakatawa (France)

OUTSIDE BACKS

  • Jonny May (England)
  • Anthony Watson (England)
  • Damian Penaud (France)
  • Elliot Daly (England)

Under-the-radar pick

Gael Fickou – While most eyes will be on the returning star on the other wing for France, Damian Penaud, on the other side Gael Fickou has been quietly going about his business in a highly effective manner. Considered by many the prodigy who never fulfilled his enormous potential, Fickou has still racked up 54 caps and amazingly is still only 25. Despite being categorised as a Centre, he once again finds himself on the wing this weekend and could well be a huge attacking threat as France look to kick on towards a historic Grand Slam.

If you back your Fantasy Rugby skills to lead you to Fantasy Six Nations glory and win you some stash while you are at it, then join our public fantasy league on The Rugby Magazine fantasy game, where a signed paperback copy of the Fantasy Rugby Handbook and a Fantasy Rugby Geek Trucker Hat, will be on offer for the winner of the league. Keep your eyes peeled for details on how to join soon!

Fantasy Rugby Games for the 2020 Six Nations

A summary of the top games that you can play fantasy rugby for the 2020 Six Nations (some of these are currently unconfirmed so may not have 6 Nations games live)…

  • The Rugby Magazine – Stats rich fantasy game for the purist rugby fan – Check out our 2020 review here
  • ESPN – A classic and straightforward Six Nations fantasy game – Check out our 2020 review here
  • SuperBru – An old favourite with fantasy rugby among other games and sports – Check out our 2020 review here
  • The Irish Times – Salary cap game with a €3000 top prize – Check out our 2020 review here
  • The Official Six Nations Fantasy Game – A salary cap game brought to you by the Official Six Nations organisers – Check out our 2020 review here

Pre-tournament articles

In case you missed any of our other pre-Six Nations articles, make sure you check out the following to help guide your pre-tournament preparations…

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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 2020 Six Nations 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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