FRG’s Fantasy Rugby World Cup Diary – Preview

Fantasy Rugby Geekon

Welcome to FRG’s Fantasy Rugby World Cup Diary! This will be 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. 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. It could get embarrassing when it all unfolds horribly, as we know, no plan survives first contact (in this case it really did as the dropped Amanaki Mafi was in my draft side for all 4 leagues for the openining game!). I hope you enjoy!

Day 1 Preview

First up on Day 1 we have the hosts Japan taking on Russia. With a fervent crowd behind them, everyone will be expecting a convincing win for the brave blossoms against a team that is in this tournament more by good fortune than ability. The bookies have set the handicap line at 40 points in favour of Japan, and so we’re expecting a convincing victory with plenty of tries for Japan. Names I’ll be keeping a close eye on will obviously be in the Japanese backline, in particular Kotaro Matsushima, who should be the star of their back three, but don’t bet against Lomano Lemeki and Will Tupou getting in on the act. Yu Tamura should rack up plenty of points with the boot and in the pack, keep an eye out for Kizuki Himeno, Michael Leitch and Shota Horie. Nobody on the Russia side really catches the eye, so I’m keeping clear.

FRG’s Teams

The Rugby Magazine

My key strategies for The Rugby Magazine are firstly to make the most of the transfer rules (i.e. You get penalised for players released rather than players coming in…) so I am starting with a squad of 28, the bare minimum, and then will bolster after the end of gameweek 2 when the tournament starts taking shape and when the big teams not playing in gameweek 2 come in. The second thing I am being very conscious of is the teams having blank weeks. My squad means (selection permitting) I should have a full 23 for gameweek 1 and 2, which was a harder challenge than I was expecting! 

I am aiming to fill the my pack with hard runners and big tacklers to make the most of the TRM points system and where possible I have filled my pack with Locks who also are assigned to back row positions (as we know, Locks in TRM are points machines). In the backs I’ve gone for explosive players with games against potentially weaker opposition and I will always ensure that my kicker will be the man kicking sticks for the favourites in one of the big mismatches of the gameweek.

Week 1 I’m going big on England, Japan and Wales, with half an eye on the carnage of gameweek 2, so ensuring that i’ll still have a full squad next week. Kicking duty was a no-brainer with Farrell likely to get plenty of attempts and the armband goes to a scrum half (always a safe bet in TRM), one of my favourite fantasy rugby players, Gareth Davies (he better start!). Already feeling the pain of selection decisions with neither Mafi, Polledri or Minozzi starting, I’ve been looking forward to seeing those three step up against weaker competion longer than I’d care to admit!

My team…

SuperBru

SuperBru is primarily around attacking play so my strategy both in the forwards and backs is to load up with attacking assets playing against perceived weaker opposition. With a limit of 3 players per nation, I have aimed where possible to have a full compliment of 3 for the biggest mismatches. With a generous transfer allocation per round, this should be achievable. I’ll also be looking to maximise the points potential of the teams playing double gameweeks.

I’m taking a few gambles in Superbru. Firstly, I’m hoping that Fiji will be relatively unchanged for Uruguay in the midweek, the thought of Radradra, Nakawara and Tuisova against the Uruguayans is far too tempting to miss, and this is why the armband goes to Tuisova. Elewhere I’m putting a lot of faith in the as yet unannouced Wales team with Biggar on kicking duty and Davies x 2 at SH and CEN respectively. Got the full complement of English and Japanese players too, including Will Tupou who is in as Centre but is starting at Full back. My bench is well loaded with players who will come in next week, including 3 big hitters from the Springboks.

My team…

The Daily Telegraph

My strategy in the Daily Telegraph is all about making the most of the 40 transfer allocation. With no “gameweek” structure and 15 captain picks, the big points will be for managers who rotate well and keep an eye on the fixture calendar to ensure that they have a steady flow of players always playing, so I will be holding on to players who have games in quick succession and dropping players with long waits between games. This will probably be the most high maintenence of all the games, requiring daily attention, but it should be fun. The scoring model very much favours attacking players, especially with 10 points for a try for forwards and 8 points a try for back, so I will be loading up with the most attack-minded players I can find.

The Telegraph game is going to be lots of fun, and I’m not really thinking about the budget with so many good value players. With 15 captain picks, I’ll be starting with it on Kotaro Matsushima who I feel is the player most likely to be on the end of the Japanese tries. My team feels locked and loaded for the first two days and then I’ll probably ship out my two Japanese representatives for soem of the English players ahead of the Tonga game. Still gutted about Polledri and Minozzi, don’t let me down against Namibia, Steyn and Bellini!

My team…

The Irish Times

A bit of a cross between The Telegraph and SuperBru, the Irish Times has a gameweek structure but this is really only to batch transfers together and to make captain picks. Transfers can be made at any stage within the gameweek, so I’ll be taking a similar approach to the Telegraph, ensuring that I have a steady flow of players always playing, so I will be holding on to players who have games in quick succession and dropping players with long waits between games. I will be putting my captain on players who have 2 games in the gameweek, ideally with 2 easy matches. The scoring is a bit more balanced than SuperBru and the Telegraph, and while the tryscorers will obviously do well, I’ll also be looking to offloaders and lineout specialists.

Struggling a bit with my Irish Times team, the rules around the in gameweek transfers are a little unclear, but lets see how it goes. Captain is on Jonny May who I hope will play twice against Tonga and the USA (I’d imagine Cokanasiga will come in for the US game, so hoping that it will be Watson that gets the hook and not May…). Elsewhere I have plenty of Fiji coverage as they play twice, including up against Uruguay, and in the back 3 my hero from this year’s Super Rugby, Sevu Reece, is in. He’ll be staying in my team for most of the tournament!

My team…

So those are my teams, best of luck with yours!

     

Fantasy Rugby Games for Rugby World Cup

A summary of the top games that you can play fantasy rugby for the Rugby World Cup…

  • The Rugby Magazine – Stats rich salary cap style game – Check out our review here
  • SuperBru – An old favourite with salary cap fantasy rugby among other games and sports – Check out our review here.
  • The Daily Telegraph – Salary cap game with a £5000 top prize – Check out our review here.
  • The Irish Times – Salary cap game with a €3000 top prize – Check out our review here.
  • PlayOn – Daily Fantasy for Rugby – Sign up today here to receive a free $22 entry with a first-time deposit – Check out a previous review here (Still TBC whether there will be a Rugby World Cup game).

Pre-tournament articles

In case you missed any of our other pre-World Cup articles, make sure you check out the following to help guide your pre-tournament preparations…

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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If you back your Fantasy Rugby skills to lead you to Fantasy Rugby World Cup glory and win you some stash while you are at it, then join our public fantasy league on The Rugby Magazine fantasy game, where a Fantasy Rugby Geek Trucker Hat will be on offer for the winner of the league. To join, Sign up to the game here & go to Leaderboards > Public Leagues and join “Fantasy Rugby Geek”. Good luck!

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