Welcome to Day 3 of FRG’s Fantasy Rugby World Cup Diary! A daily post during the World Cup in which I will be previewing the upcoming games, looking back at the previous matches and sharing the progress, trials and tribulations of all my teams across the 4 games live for the World Cup. In case you missed my original Diary post outlining my strategy for all four games, have a read here. Throughout the tournament I will provide a warts and all insight in to how I’m selecting my sides, who I’m selecting and how I’m getting on…
Match Day 3 Review
Day 3 kicked off with Italy v Namibia, a relatively straightforward win for Italy, and Conor O’Shea to the opportunity of what should be their easiest match with some heavy rotation and carefully managed game time across the board. Impressing the most was Tommaso Allan, who continues to grow in quality and should be Italy’s starting 10 for years to come. Elsewhere, pre-tournament tips Jake Polledri and Matteo Minozzi both appeared off the bench and promptly appeared on the scoresheet. Keep an eye on these two.
In the all-Northern Hemisphere clash between Ireland and Scotland, it was a fairly one-sided and brutal victory for Ireland, finishing 27-3 to Ireland. The majority of the outstanding fantasy scorers were in the pack, including tryscorers Rory Best, James Ryan and Tadhg Furlong, with also strong all round point scoring from Iain Henderson and CJ Stander. In the backs Andrew Conway topped off an impressive performance with a late try.
Finally at the Sapporo Dome, England had a disjointed 35-3 victory against Tonga. There was a standout performance from Manu Tuilagi, which included 2 tries, 93m carried and 6 defenders beaten. Elsewhere, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Jamie George got on the scoresheet, while Anthony Watson impressed with 117m carried and 7 defenders beaten, and Owen Farrell had a decent night with the boot.
Match Day 4 Preview
Just the one game on Monday with Wales making their tournament bow against Georgia. Wales have named a pretty much full strength side and the bookies are expecting a convincing 25+ point victory. Key players for Wales are likely to be Liam Williams, Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies, George North, Josh Adams & Justin Tipuric. For Georgia, the action is all in the pack and I’ll be intrigued to see how Beka Gorgadze and Mamuka Gorgodze go.
FRG’s Teams
The Rugby Magazine – Points: 390 – Ranking: 981
Pretty average day, I had a tryscorer in Tadhg Furlong, however his points returns weren’t great. My top scorer was the ever-reliable Maro Itoje with 36, and Owen Farrell duly obliged as usual with the boot. Tomorrow I will have captain Gareth Davies lining up against Georgia and I’ll also have Jonathan Davies and Liam Williams in the starting line up. When tomorrow is over I’ll then reshuffle the deck for Gameweek 2, where I’ll be going big on England and South Africa, with a few Fiji, Samoa, Georgia and Argentina players.
SuperBru – Points: 147.5 – Ranking: TBC
I had 5 players playing today with Jonny May, Billy Vunipola, Maro Itoje, Braam Steyn and Tiziano Pasquali. None scored particularly highly and I’ll be expecting a pretty average ranking by the time this gameweek is out. Tomorow I have Jonathan Davies, Gareth Davies and Dan Biggar playing and I’ll be hoping for some good attacking returns.
The Daily Telegraph – Points: 234 – Ranking: 2403
An okay day, more based on the volume of players that I had than any outstanding performances, although Tadhg Furlong’s 14 points from prop was welcomed. I’ll be making a few swaps tomorrow, May out for North, Watson out for Adams and Farrell out for Biggar. The captain’s armband will also pass to Josh Adams.
The Irish Times – Points: 238 – Ranking: 4436
A solid day, with some good performances from Farrell & Furlong, but not the points bonanza I was expecting. My captain Jonny May got an assist, but I’m disppointed he didn’t get on the scoresheet. It’ll be the turn of my Welsh contingent tomorrow before the Fiji and England double game weekers come in on Wednesday and Thursday.
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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 Rugby World Cup 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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