If you are new to Fantasy Rugby Geek, then welcome to our first instalment of our weekly pre-match updates for the Guinness 2026 Six Nations. This 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.
What will go down…
Into the final Round of the 2026 Men’s Six Nations and Super Saturday is finely poised!
The day begins with Ireland v Scotland. Ireland have now won 11 consecutive matches against Scotland, and with home advantage once again, they’ll be favourites, despite Scotland’s astonishing win against France in Round 4. The bookies are expecting Ireland to win by 5 points.
Next up is Wales v Italy at the Principality. Italy made history last year with back-to-back wins over Wales, sealing a 22–15 victory and condemning Wales to a sixth-place finish. All signs suggest that this will be another win for the Azzurri, although the bookies are being cautious, only expecting Italy to win by 3 points.
And Super Saturday finishes with Le Crunch, as France host England. France will have the edge with home advantage, but last year, England snatched a famous 26–25 win, denying France a Grand Slam — England’s first Le Crunch victory since 2021. England’s form this year however has been atrocious and the bookies are expecting a comfortable home win, backing France to win by 16 points.
Expected to go well
*Players who are starting favourably out of position (i.e. Hooker in back row, Centre on wing, etc.)
PROPS
- Danilo Fischetti (Italy)
- Rhys Carre (Wales)
- Zander Fagerson (Scotland)
HOOKERS
- Dan Sheehan (Ireland)
- Dewi Lake (Wales)
LOCKS
- Tadhg Beirne (Ireland)
- Ollie Chessum (England)*
- Emmanuel Meafou (France)
BACK ROW
- Charles Ollivon (France)
- Caelan Doris (Ireland)
- Jack Conan (Ireland)
- Lorenzo Cannone (Italy)
SCRUM-HALF
- Antoine Dupont (France)
- Ben White (Scotland)
FLY HALF
- Matthieu Jalibert (France)
- Finn Russell (Scotland)
CENTRES
- Tommaso Menoncello (Italy)
- Stuart McCloskey (Ireland)
- Huw Jones (Scotland)
BACK 3
- Thomas Ramos (France)
- Louis Bielle-Biarrey (France)
- Kyle Steyn (Scotland)
- Monty Ioane (Italy)
Round 5 Differentials
For those players chasing their league leaders, Round 5 is the time to throw caution to the wind and choose a few spicy differentials. Here’s a selection of players with 10% ownership or less (at the time of writing) who could deliver serious value…
- Kyle Steyn (SCO) – B3 – 10%
- Darcy Graham (SCO) – B3 – 5%
- Blair Kinghorn (SCO) – B3 – 4%
- Louis Rees-Zammit (WAL) – B3 – 4%
- Theo Attissogbe (FRA) – B3 – 6%
- Monty Ioane (ITA) – B3 – 3%
- Tommy O’Brien (IRE) – B3 – 1%
- Huw Jones (SCO) – C – 8%
- Yoram Moefana (FRA) – C – 2%
- Pierre-Louis Barassi (FRA) – C – 1%
- Paolo Garbisi (ITA) – FH – 3%
- Ben White (SCO) – SH – 5%
- Aaron Wainwright (WAL) – BR – 4%
- Jack Dempsey (SCO) – BR – 6%
- Charles Ollivon (FRA) – BR – 5%
- Josh Van Der Flier (IRE) – BR – 5%
- Alex Mann (WAL) – BR – 4%
- James Botham (WAL) – BR – 5%
- Temu Matiu (FRA) – BR – 1%
- Emmanuel Meafou (FRA) – SR – 3%
- Ollie Chessum (ENG) – SR – 5%
- Thibaud Flament (FRA) – SR – 2%
- Ben Carter (WAL) – SR – 2%
Recommended Captain Picks
This week I’d suggest the following as Captain Pick options…
- Thomas Ramos (France)
- Matthieu Jalibert (France)
- Louis Bielle-Biarrey (France)
Supersub Strategy
For those playing the Official Game, we look at potential options for the SuperSub role.
Ultimately SuperSub is a bit of a lottery. You could luck out if one of the starting XV needs to go off in the early stages of the game, but likewise you could be at the mercy of a coach who decides to leave his backs on the bench for the entire 80 minutes, so you have to play the percentages and consider the risks.
As covered in detail in a previous post, for me the key areas to consider in a SuperSub are…
- Will they come on, and will they play a significant period of time
- How the team has used their bench in previous games
- The split of subs on the bench
Based on squads so far, the following will be in contention…
- Nick Timoney – BR – Ireland
- Peato Mauvaka – H – France
- Mickael Guillard – SR – France
- Magnus Bradbury – BR – Scotland
Bargain buys on the Official game
The following players, valued at 11 stars or less, have been identified as potentially scoring well for their cost in the game and should be considered as good value enablers…
- Nacho Brex (ITA) – 10.9 – C
- Thibaud Flament (FRA) – 10.6 – SR
- James Botham (WAL) – 10.5 – BR
- Ben Carter (WAL) – 10.1 – SR
- Pierre-Louis Barassi (FRA) – 9.9 – C
- Andrea Zambonin (ITA) – 9.5 – SR
- George Turner (SCO) – 8.5 – H
- Temu Matiu (FRA) – 6.6 – BR
- Muhamed Hasa (ITA) – 6.2 – PR
Six Nations 2026 – Join the FRG Leagues!
The Six Nations returns on Thursday 5th January! The fantasy games are now live on both the Official Game and Superbru, so get signed up and join our leagues now!
To join on the Official Game, simply join my league directly here.
To join on Superbru, join my league directly here or by downloading the Superbru Rugby app and searching for the league with code: hidepoem
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If you want some more sources to help you finalise your decisions, go to our resources page where you’ll find all the 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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