Fantasy Rugby Games Overview – ESPN Scrum 2020 Six Nations Fantasy Game

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The third of a series of game overviews to give you the ins and outs of the available games in place for this season’s Guinness Six Nations.

If any new games pop up, please let us know at fantasyrugbygeek@gmail.com or @frugbygeek on Twitter.

Next to look at is a well known and popular Six Nations game, a tried and tested favourite and one of the very first Fantasy Rugby games, the ESPN Scrum Fantasy Rugby game.

THE PREMISE

The most well known and most played of Six Nations fantasy games. It has been around for years and is a simple and thoroughly enjoyable fantasy game. You select 15 players with no salary restrictions, select a designated kicker and away you go!

You need to pick 3 x Front-row forwards, 2 x Second-row forwards, 3 x Back-row forwards, 1 x Scrum-half, 1 x Fly-half, 2 x Centres and 3 x Outside backs with a maximum of 4 from each nation. You are allowed just three transfers each round, so you will need to ensure that your planning is on point throughout and hope that your players make it through each bruising encounter in one piece!

The only major change to the game this year are some scoring tweaks; forwards will now get 8 points for a try and assist creators will get 3 points for an assist. So choosing attacking players is most definitely the order of the day.

It’s a classic game that has been going for over 10 years, and is a staple of any fantasy addict come January every year. Not only that, but there are some great prizes on offer this year both for the overall winner, and for each of the Round winners

THE KEY POINTS

  • Site: http://fantasyrugby.espn.co.uk
  • Squad Size: 15
  • Team size: 15
  • Double scoring captain?: No
  • Designated Kicker?: Yes
  • Transfers: 3 transfers per round
  • Max players from one team: 4

THE EDGE

Try scorers will dominate

Looking at the points available, big points are on show for scoring tries, with 8 for try-scoring forwards and 5 for try-scoring backs. With this in mind, go for players with a track record of crossing the whitewash. Compared to meagre points offerings elsewhere, tries are definitely where the value is at in this game. To help you select players likely to score, keep an eye on the bookies anytime tryscorer odds to help you make your decisions.

Creative sparks will give you the edge

With 3 points on offer for any assists, look to include as many creative players as you can. Here are some of the prolific assist makers from last year…

Italy

Sadly, the strength of the Italian team does not seem to be improving and has regressed in recent years. In such a competitive competition, you need to find any potential mismatches where you can, and unfortunately Italy, who are currently 500-1 outsiders to win the Six Nations provide the best opportunity for a mismatch. Wherever possible load up with players who have a fixture against the Azzuri

Triple up on Hookers

In the ESPN game you can select three “front row forwards”, use this allocation on three Hookers. Hookers tend to be far more mobile so find themselves doing far more damage in the loose than props, as well as regularly finding themselves the beneficiary of driving mauls leading to tries. You only need to compare the anytime tryscorer odds of Hookers compared to Props to know that in fantasy terms, this is an absolute “no-brainer”.

Plan ahead

Keep an eye on the fixture list when making your transfers to ensure that you get the best bang for your buck and that the players in teams with favourable runs of fixtures are in your side

Keep an eye for man of the match

The player awarded Man of the Match by the official decision of the host broadcaster is awarded a healthy bonus of 5 points, which can make a huge difference. Looking at last year’s man of the match winners, there weren’t many trends to be found in the winners and nobody won it twice…

George North (Wales), Blair Kinghorn (Scotland), Mako Vunipola (England), Peter O’Mahony (Ireland) x 2, Josh Navidi (Wales), Jonny May (England), Demba Bamba (France), Liam Williams (Wales), Hadleigh Parkes (Wales), Joe Cokanasiga (England), James Ryan (Ireland), Sergio Parisse (Italy), Gareth Anscombe (Wales), Finn Russell (Scotland)

…so your best bet? Pick a great side packed with top class players with a proven track record at international level, and hope for the best!

Double check your XV is starting before the round lock

Once the gameweek lock has passed, you cannot change your team. Lineups are usually all announced by Friday afternoon, so keep an eye on the lineups and make sure your XV are all starting.

Defence wins Championships

With a point on offer for every 5 tackles a player makes certain big tacklers should provide you with big returns, consider including some of these top performers from 2017 in your team, especially in the second row, where attacking returns are usually low…

Out-of-position players are worth their weight in gold

Keep an eye on players who are classified in one position but end up playing in another position that may well provide greater returns (think a winger classified as a centre, a loose forward classified as a lock, etc).

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. Join it here!

Other 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 salary cap style game – Check out our 2020 review here
  • PlayOn – Daily Fantasy for Rugby – Sign up today here to receive a free $22 entry with a first-time deposit – 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 salary cap 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

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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