The second in a series of game overviews to give you the ins and outs of the available games in place for this season’s The Rugby Championship. If any new games pop up, please let us know at fantasyrugbygeek@gmail.com or @frugbygeek on Twitter. Next under the microscope is the brand new Rugby Championship game, check it out here.
Before we look at the game…
Earlier on this year some of you may remember the podcast that I made through the Six Nations with my friend Paul Tristram, “Six Nations Fantasy Rugby: Geeks on the Go”. In the last week Paul and his family have discovered that Paul needs immediate heart surgery. He’s known about his condition for many years, but due to misreadings on his scans, its become critical he gets the surgery ASAP. Due to no fault of his own, there is no NHS appointments until January. Therefore his immediate surgery will need to be scheduled privately, costing £30k. A GoFundMe page has been set up by Paul’s fiance, family and friends to raise funds for his surgery (the GoFundMe page can be found here).
Those of you who listened to the podcast will know just how much Paul loved his fantasy rugby. So with brand new fantasy games kicking off for both The Rugby Championship and the Women’s Rugby World Cup in the next two weeks, I have set up prize leagues for both, with 50% of the prize pot going directly to Paul’s GoFundMe and the remaining 50% going to the winners.
The entry fee to join each league will be £10. You can join just the The Rugby Championship league or just the Women’s Rugby World Cup league, it’s entirely up to you. Or you can be a legend and join both!
For both leagues, the prize pot will then be distributed 25% to the overall winner of each competition, 15% to second place, 10% to third place and the remaining 50% will go directly to Paul’s GoFundMe page.
To join, please email me at fantasyrugbygeek@gmail.com or DM me on the FRG X or FRG Instagram and I will share details of my PayPal for you to send me the entry fee. Once I have received the entry fee I’ll email back the link to join the private league.
THE PREMISE
A salary cap style fantasy game from the makers of the Official Super Rugby fantasy game (so if you played that, you will be familiar with the format), you have a budget of $100m to fill your team of 15 with players. You must pick 1 Hooker, 2 Props, 2 Second Rows, 3 Back Rows, 1 Scrum Half, 1 Fly Half, 2 Centres and 3 Outside Backs
Once the tournament gets underway, you can make unlimited transfers throughout the tournament. The Rolling Lockout is an important point to note. At the start of the Round, your whole team will NOT lockout, and you can continue making trades. Players will lockout individually when their team starts playing in the Round. You may not make any Transfers involving locked out players until the end of the Round (For example, if you have players from South Africa or Australia in your team, they will Lockout at the beginning of Round 1 as they feature in the first game. However, all other players in your team will remain unlocked and eligible to transfer).
One innovation is the introduction of score “boosters”. There are 3 boosters that are available. These are the Triple Captain (your chosen player will have his match score tripled), Limitless (you will have an unlimited budget for one round only) and Co-Captains (for one round only, you will be able to select two captains to score double points). Each booster can be used once, so use them carefully.
For those who played the Super Rugby game, the biggest differences are the addition of points for a 50-22 (offering a huge 10 points!) as well as some updates for the total numbers of players selected for each nation. You can select up to 6 players from each nation, but you also have to select a minimum of 3 from each nation as well, so you can’t just load up with the favourites.
One other point to mention is the excellent prizes on offer. SANZAR have been very generous with a massive USD$5,000 on offer in cold hard cash for the overall winner. USD$5,000 to first place. They also offer USD$2,500 to second place and USD$1,000 to third place with USD$150 on offer for each of the weekly winners.
Being the official game it will no doubt be hugely popular with a big player pool, so you are definitely recommended to sign up!
THE KEY POINTS
- Site: https://playfantasyrugby.com/rugby-championship
- Squad Size: 15
- Team size: 15
- Double scoring captain?: Yes, you can change it for each round of the tournament
- Designated Kicker?: No
- Transfers: Unlimited
- Max players from one team: 6 from each team
THE EDGE
Choose your captain wisely
There are double points for a captain, so choose your skipper wisely. You can play it safe with a kicker, or consult the anytime tryscorer odds to see if any player in particular is expected to fill their boots with tries.
Use your boosters strategically
Let’s dig into the “boosters” a bit deeper…
To recap, there are 3 boosters that are available that can all be played once in the season. The boosters are…
- Triple Captain – Your captain will score you triple points for their next match.
- Limitless – You will have an unlimited budget for one round only
- Co-Captains – For one round only, you will be able to select two captains to score double points
Goes without saying that the Triple Captain should be someone you’d back to have a huge all round game, so target any potential mismatches (a tough call in The Rugby Championship!) to try and have a player likely for a safe haul.
For the Limitless chip save it for any weeks you are having big budget issues (which never happened in Super Rugby, but here the pricing looks a little more challenging).
Finally, I’ll use my co-captain on weeks where I am really struggling to choose between two captain options.
Use your budget carefully
You have a budget of $100m for 15 players, which gives you $6.6m per player. The pricing for the The Rugby Championship game looks tougher than on their Super Rugby game so careful budget management is key.
Unsurprisingly the premium players with premium price tags, however, there are also potential bargains to be had, including the likes of Pietsch, Matteo Carreras, Tavatavanawai, Hotham, Tizzano, Lakai, Grondona (x2!), Fassi and Leroy Carter, all worth a look in, and should allow you to bring in some premium stars elsewhere.
Load up with kickers
There is no limit on the amount of kickers you can select and kicks are guaranteed points, so while you are restricted to one fly half, if there are kickers playing in other positions (scrum half and full back for example…) then sign them up.
Watch for the Line Breaks
Line Breaks and Line Break Assists are worth 7 points and 5 points respectively. This is a potential fantasy goldmine and explains why the likes of Corey Toole, Leroy Carter and Sevu Reece performed so well in the Super Rugby game. If you can identify players with a habit or breaking the line or the playmakers setting them up, then load up.
Come and join the FRG league for 2025/26!
If you back your Fantasy Rugby skills to lead you to The Rugby Championship glory, then join our public fantasy league. To join, Sign up to the game here. Good luck!
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