February is almost here and that means Super Rugby is back, but not as we know it! After the success of Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby AU last year, they are back with the addition of an integrated Australian and New Zealand tournament, Super Rugby Trans Tasman.
So this first in a series of game overviews to give you the ins and outs of the available games in place for this season’s Super Rugby Aotearoa, Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Trans-Tasman. If any new games pop up, please let us know at fantasyrugbygeek@gmail.com or @frugbygeek on Twitter. First up is an old favourite and a game that continues to evolve, it’s Fantasy Rugby Draft.
THE PREMISE
A draft style Fantasy Rugby league. Fantasy Draft rugby is quite different to traditional salary cap style fantasy rugby as you know it. The key aspects of it are:
- You are competing in a private league of 8 to 10, not against the rest of the world
- You draft your squad over 17 rounds
- Unlike in salary cap style games, there is only one player per league (i.e. only one team can have Damian McKenzie)
- Each team’s front row is available as one “player”
- You can change your squad via trades, the waiver wire and free agents
- Each week you go head to head vs another team in your league, the winner of this matchup picks up the win in the league table, the top 2 in each league faces off in a set of knock-out play-off phases
The guys at Fantasy Rugby Draft have been working hard to introduce a combined Super Rugby Aotearoa, Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Trans-Tasman tournament. Given the staggered start dates of these tournaments, this season will prove to be the most strategic yet!
The best part of the FRD experience, and you’ll know this if you’ve played before, is drafting. One-by-one in order (as a result of a random draw), the managers pick the players that make up their team. In order to keep things fair, at the end of each round the order of picks is reversed (so if you picked the first player in Round 1, then you’ll get last pick in Round 2). The draft usually goes on for a couple of hours and is always a great laugh.
This season FRD are bringing back their Blitz Fantasy Tournaments. Every Manager PRO subscriber (more on Manager PRO below…) will be automatically entered into a Blitz Tournament league. In addition, there are now several commissioner customisations possible including being able to customise the points scoring process and the make up of scoring players in your league, or even switching to the legendary Fox scoring.
I’ve played it for a number of years; it’s a brilliant game and well worth you pulling together with your mates to put a league out. If you are looking for a league to join, I’d highly recommend you joining the Fantasy Rugby Draft Hall of Fame facebook group, as there are often people looking for leagues there.
THE KEY POINTS
- Squad Size: 17 OR 21
- Team size: 11 (3 x Outside Backs, 2 x Midfielders, 1 x Fly-half, 1 x Scrum-half, 2 x Loose Forward, 1 x Lock & 1 x Front Row) OR 15 (3 x Outside Backs, 2 x Midfielders, 1 x Fly-half, 1 x Scrum-half, 3 x Loose Forward, 2 x Lock, 2 x Prop & 1 x Hooker)
- Double scoring captain?: No
- Designated Kicker?: No, you can have unlimited kickers
- Transfers: Unlimited transfers (but only if the players you want are free agents or you have agreed a trade)
- Max players from one club: Unlimited
THE EDGE
Keep a close eye on the fixture calendar and plan ahead
More than ever, this season will be about keeping an eye on the fixture list when making your trades and bring in free agents to ensure that you get the best bang for your buck. In this format, the byes come thick and fast and the Aotearoa teams have no matches in Week 1. If a certain team has a good run of games coming up bring them 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! Play the game and monitor the fixtures carefully. The below graphic from FRD is going to be your best friend this season as you navigate the chaos. Play the calendar well and you will sure find yourself in a play-off spot…
Kickers not categorised as fly-halves
Often fantasy games force you to select one kicker to gain points from conversions, penalties, drop goals etc. Not here, so if you can find kickers who play outside of the fly-half position (D-Mack for example) then they are well worth picking up, as they are guaranteed points.
Front row bonus
Some players categorised as front rowers sometimes will end up playing in the back row. If you can find a front row with one of these utility forwards then it will provide your team with a 4th extra player.
Waiver wire
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. The pool of free agents tends to get fiercely competitive just after lineups are announced when Fantasy Rugby 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.
Out of position players
Players who are categorised in certain positions, but mostly play in others can be great value. Outside backs who generally have a high probability of scoring tries, beating players, breaking the line and carrying for metres are traditionally the highest scorers, so if you can find an Outside Back categorised as a Midfielder, then load up! Likewise this works well if you can find a Loose Forward categorised as a lock.
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 a bargain price of just NZ$19.95, an absolute steal, so make sure you get on it; it’s a gamechanger. If you want to learn more about the game and get some absolutely golden sleeper tips, check out our interview from 2020 with the founder of Fantasy Rugby Draft, Bruce Wilkinson, here.
Super Rugby Injury News
Gaining reliable Injury news is never easy, and while we don’t have a database of the latest injuries at Fantasy Rugby Geek, we would highly recommend Draft Rugby’s Casualty Ward, Fantasy Rugby Draft’s Injury List and The Rugby Magazine’s injuries page. Details of these and many other useful Fantasy Rugby resources can be found at our Resources page.
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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!
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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