Fantasy Rugby Tips, Picks and Pre-match Thoughts – Gallagher Premiership 2020/21 Round 2

Our latest instalment of our weekly pre-match updates 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.

Make sure you come back every weekend before finalising your lineups!

Potential mismatches

With so many players away at the Autumn Nations Cup and just one weekend of form to go off, it’s best to take the projected handicap lines with a pinch of salt. It’s still early days so anything can happen, but here are the projected lines…

  • Exeter to beat Bath by 17 points
  • Bristol to beat Worcester by 11 points
  • Sale to beat Newcastle by 9 points
  • Wasps to beat Gloucester by 5 points
  • Northampton to beat Harlequins by 3 points
  • Leicester to beat London Irish by 3 points

Expected to go well on Fantasy Rugby Draft and The Rugby Magazine

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

Recommended The Rugby Magazine captain pick in bold

FRONT ROW

  • Akker Van Der Merwe (Sale)
  • Jack Yeandle (Exeter)
  • Alfie Barbeary (Wasps)*
  • Harry Williams (Exeter)
  • Beno Obano (Bath)
  • Coenie Oosthuizen (Sale)
  • John Afoa (Bristol)

LOCKS

  • Jean-Luc Du Preez (Sale)*
  • Jannes Kirsten (Exeter)*
  • Chris Vui (Bristol)*
  • Sean Robinson (Newcastle)*
  • Dave Ribbans (Northampton)

BACK ROW

  • Tom Willis (Wasps)
  • Nathan Hughes (Bristol)
  • Sam Simmonds (Exeter)
  • Thomas Young (Wasps)
  • Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins)
  • Dan Du Preez (Sale)
  • Lewis Ludlam (Northampton)

SCRUM-HALF

  • Alex Mitchell (Northampton)
  • Faf De Klerk (Sale)
  • Harry Randall (Bristol)

FLY HALF

  • Joe Simmonds (Exeter)
  • AJ McGinty (Sale)
  • James Grayson (Northampton)

CENTRES

  • Rohan Janse Van Rensburg (Sale)
  • Sam Bedlow (Bristol)*
  • Sam James (Sale)
  • Jimmy Gopperth (Wasps)*
  • Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester)
  • Ollie Devoto (Exeter)

OUTSIDE BACKS

  • Olly Woodburn (Exeter)
  • Ioan Lloyd (Bristol)
  • Freddie Steward (Leicester)
  • Ollie Thorley (Gloucester)
  • Tom O’Flaherty (Exeter)
  • Facundo Cordero (Exter)

Value Fantasy Rugby Draft Free Agent Pick-ups

Please note that not all of these players may be available as free agents in your leagues, but if they are, then move quickly!

  • Jordy Reid – LF – Gloucester
  • Cadan Murley – OB – Harlequins
  • Richard Wigglesworth – HB – Leicester
  • Lloyd Evans – FH – Gloucester
  • Luther Burrell – M – Newcastle
  • Matt Scott – M – Leicester
  • Tom Seabrook – OB – Gloucester
  • Jaco Taute – M – Leicester
  • Sean Robinson – L – Newcastle
  • Dave Ewers – LF – Exeter
  • Matt Kvesic – LF – Worcester
  • Ioan Lloyd – OB – Bristol
  • Mark Atkinson – M – Gloucester

The Rugby Magazine News…

This season, The Rugby Magazine have announced an excellent initiative to support the RPA’s charity, Restart Rugby

This season, the Rugby Magazine have teamed up with Restart, the official charity of the Rugby Players’ Association, and will donate 50% of every upgrade within their Premiership fantasy game. They are aiming to raise enough money to pay for their confidential counselling service for six months, but with the players of the Rugby Magazine’s help, the aim is to cover it for the full year. In this, we as Fantasy Rugby players have the chance to give back to those who give so much to us.

Furthermore, in an exciting new launch for the 2020/21 season, The Rugby Magazine has now launched an iPhone app. The App is free to download in the App Store with Android coming soon…

Finally, if you back your Fantasy Rugby skills to lead you to Fantasy Premiership glory in The Rugby Magazine and win you some stash while you are at it, then join our public fantasy league on The Rugby Magazine fantasy game, where a Fantasy Rugby Geek Trucker Hat, and a signed paperback copy of the Fantasy Rugby Handbook will be on offer for the winner of the league. To join, Sign up to the game here & go to Leaderboards > Public Leagues and join “Fantasy Rugby Geek”. Good luck!

Premiership Rugby Injury News

Gaining reliable Injury news for the Premiership is extremely difficult, and while we don’t have a database of the latest injuries at Fantasy Rugby Geek, we would highly recommend The Rugby Magazine’s injuries page which remains the most exhaustive source of Premiership injury news that can be found. Details of this and many other useful Fantasy Rugby resources can be found at our Resources page.

Come and join the FRG league!

If you back your Fantasy Rugby skills to lead you to Fantasy Premiership 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 Fantasy Rugby Geek Trucker Hat, and a signed paperback copy of the Fantasy Rugby Handbook will be on offer for the winner of the league. To join, Sign up to the game here & go to Leaderboards > Public Leagues and join “Fantasy Rugby Geek”. Good luck!

Introducing The XV

The XV is a new Rugby subscription platform providing premium rugby content. The content on The XV includes long-read features, opinion pieces, in-depth analysis and columns from award-winning journalists, leading coaches, data analysts and the biggest stars in the game. Current contributors include Buck Shelford, Ben Kimber, Justin Marshall, Owain Jones, Nolli Waterman, Jon Cardinelli, Ross Harries, Chris Ashton, Gregor Paul, Liam Messam and,  host of the Fantasy Rugby Draft podcast and friend of the FRG blog, none other than Sam Roberts. In addition to this there are 3 Podcasts currently live, including The XV with Ben Kimber (which is worth the subscription fee alone), with video to come too.
 
The XV costs £3.99 a month (far less than a pint at Twickenham) or just £24.99 per annum (far far less than a ticket to a match at Twickenham!), and for a limited period of time readers of FRG can get the first month for free, and a further 20% off your first paid month for monthly subscribers and 20% of your first year for annual subscribers by entering the code FRGXV at check-out. You can cancel for nothing at the end of the month, so you can enjoy risk-free top-quality rugby journalism for a whole month before you make a call to continue your subscription.
 
Check out The XV here and don’t forget to enter the discount code FRGXV at check-out for 20% off.

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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! Looking for more Fantasy Rugby news, tips and advice? Follow @frugbygeek on Twitter, Like us on Facebook or sign up to the newsletter below to get fantasy rugby news delivered straight to you!

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