The second of a series of game overviews to give you the ins and outs of the available games in place for this season’s Heineken Champions Cup ahead of the kick-off on the 15th November. If any new games pop up, please let us know at fantasyrugbygeek@gmail.com or @frugbygeek on Twitter. Next under the microscope is an old favourite for both Super Rugby and Premiership Rugby, 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 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 Taqele Naiyaravoro)
- 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
But the best part of the 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.
The team at Fantasy Rugby Draft has been hard at work throughout the off-season and has introduced a number of very exciting new features this year…
- The game now covers Pro14 and Champions Cup
- FRD are introducing their first Daily Fantasy Cash Tournament for the Champions Cup (As they did for the Premiership and Pro14). Every Manager PRO subscriber (more on Manager PRO below…) will be automatically entered into a DFS Tournament league.
- Several commissioner customisations including being able to customise the points scoring process and the make up of scoring players in your league
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. If you want to learn more about how to play, then check this out…
THE KEY POINTS
- Squad Size: 17*
- 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)*
- 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
*Please note that these are now customisable, so make sure you check in with your commissioner as to the rules in place for your league…
THE EDGE
Knockout stages
For the first time that I am aware of Fantasy Rugby Draft will now be having gameweeks in the knockout stages. This means that you are better off drafting teams that are likely to progress to the knockout stages, thus ensuring that you still have a deep squad in the latter stages.
The Top 5 favourites for the tournament are…
- Leinster (2.88)
- Saracens (4.0)
- Clermont Auvergne (7.5)
- Toulouse (8.0)
- Exeter (11.0)
So maybe focus your attention on these teams during the earlier rounds…
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 (examples from last season included Billy Twelvetrees, Thomas Ramos and Morgan Parra) 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.
Friday Midday Madness
As with the Premiership, if you are at work on Friday you might want to schedule your lunch break on the dot of midday UK Time, this is when the weekend lineups are announced and 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. Get this right and it will pay off big time. Keep an eye on the team announcements on the Fantasy Rugby Geek Champions Cup Twitter List to catch the team announcements as they come in.
For even more tips to give you the edge, make sure check out our interview with a previous top Fantasy Rugby Draft player, Bryn Williams)
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, it’s an absolute steal, so make sure you get on it; it’s a gamechanger.
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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 Gallagher Premiership 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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