Welcome to Day 4 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 4 Review
Wales played Georgia in today’s only match and brought some impressive attacking flair in a 43-14 victory. There were standout performances from Justin Tipuric and Josh Adams, with Dan Biggar, George North, Jonathan Davies and Liam Williams scoring well from a fantasy perspective. On the Georgia side there were some impressive performances from their pack, with Guram Gogichashvili in particular making a great impact off the bench.
Match Day 5 Preview
A single game on Tuesday with a fresh Samoa side facing up against Russia. This should be a procession for Samoa and in terms of players to add, take any pick of the back 3, Ed Fidow, Ahsee Tuala and Tim Nanai-Williams. In addition, the Bristol Bears contingent of Chris Vui and Alapeti Leuia are both proven fantasy assets who should get in the points against such week opposition.
FRG’s Teams
The Rugby Magazine – Points: 488 – Ranking: 325
A solid day with points coming from two tryscorers in Liam Williams and Jonathan Davies as well as an assist from my captain Gareth Davies (not currently there yet, but hopefully will be updated soon!), this brings me up to 488 for Gameweek 1 and an overall rank of 325. Some way off the overall pace, and a big congratulations to friend of the blog, Malcolm McKenzie, leading the world with 630 points!
Attention now moves to Gameweek 2, and I’ve made two new signings, out goes my one free release Billy Mata, who picked up what looked like an injury against Australia on Saturday. Also in comes Semi Radradra for Fiji’s game against Uruguay and Tim Nanai-Williams, for tomorrows game against Russia. This brings me to a squad of 29, so waiting to see the other lineups before I make any more changes (including at 9 where I’ll be bringing in De Klerk, H Jantjiesor Reinach depending on who starts). For tomorrow I only have two players, both will get me half points as they’re on my bench, Chris Vui and Tim Nanai-Williams.
SuperBru – Points: 192 – Ranking: TBC
Another okay day, I had the tryscoring Jonathan Davies, the kicking Dan Biggar and Gareth Davies, so had a good bump up in my overall score. I have nobody playing tomorrow, and my captain Josua Tuisova is not playing on Wednesday which is disappointing. I’ll be hoping that Semi Radradra goes well, and I’m excited to also see Leone Nakarawa starting at 8, where he’ll hopefully have more opportunity to unleash some damage in the loose!
The Daily Telegraph – Points: 354 – Ranking: 1183
Another good day in the Telegraph, I went quite heavy on Wales with G Davies, J Davies, Biggar, North and Adams and they all delivered, so I’ve jumped up over 1000 places in the rankings. Tomorrow I’ll be making one change, Ed Fidow for George North, as the prospect of not having someone on the pitch against Russia is too painful not to consider!
The Irish Times – Points: 263 – Ranking: 4533
My Irish Time woes continue. Two players playing today in Alun Wyn Jones and Gareth Davies, neither of whom scored particularly well. Tomorrow I have nobody, and on Wednesday Tuisova is out, and as he has already played in this round, I can’t sub him. All hopes pinned on Semi Radradra, Leone Nakarawa and Eddie Jones’s rest policy to save this match round!
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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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