Interview – The Fantasy Rugby Yanks Podcast

Fantasy Rugby Geekon

If you are reading this blog you are probably a fan of Fantasy Rugby. While Fantasy NFL and Fantasy Premier League are long part of the sporting mainstream, Fantasy Rugby is still growing and growing, and gaining exposure as part of the worldwide growth of the sport. The number of those blogging on the subject are fairly low as are the number of those podcasting on the subject. There are some great podcasts out there however and FRG had to pleasure to talk with Jarrod Dyke and Ben G of the Fantasy Rugby Yanks podcast, one of the finest Fantasy Rugby pods out there.

We discussed the story behind their podcast, the growth of Rugby in the USA and got a few tips ahead of the Rugby World Cup, so sit back and learn more about the Fantasy Rugby Yanks…

FRG: You host a podcast specialising in Fantasy Rugby called the Fantasy Rugby Yanks. For those that have yet to hear it, can you tell us about the podcast and what we can expect to hear on it?

TFRY: It’s an Americans perspective on rugby in the world (club and international) with an increased focus on fantasy rugby as you might hear from other American sports podcasts.

FRG: Have you always been a Rugby player and fan? How did you get into playing Fantasy Rugby?

TFRY: Jarrod started playing rugby at 16 years old, Ben started playing rugby at 22. Both have been into rugby for 15+ years. We both were curious about if we could do fantasy rugby having done other fantasy sports for a long time now, we did a search, found a couple of site/formats we liked and here we are.

FRG: What made you both decide to create a Fantasy Rugby podcast?

TFRY: We had discussed the possibility of this afterward we did the previously mentioned search, then there was a moment for Jarrod…

My wife and I were at a wedding, along with a few other close friends of hers, one couple there was, a close college friend of hers and her husband. The husband use to work for a major sports media company here in the U.S. Many of the gentlemen at this wedding knew this about the husband and wanted to meet him just to ask him what it was like, so on and so forth. One of these nice men, we’ll call him Jamoke, mentions to the husband that he and his friends had been doing a fantasy football podcast, seemingly trying to impress him (fantasy football is ridiculously popular in America as I’m sure you know).

The husband responded kinder than I would have, my thought was, any dunderhead that’s played fantasy football for 2 years has done that. The husband, a way nicer person than I, said yeah that’s great, it’s a super niche market that’s getting saturated (the gist at least). After this comment, it hit me, I know a market that’s not even close to saturated, very niche with room to grow…not to mention I know another guy that might know a thing or 2 (Ben) about this. I gave it the kick in the ass that was needed, Ben hopped on shortly after, here we are.

FRG: What have you got planned for the podcast around the Rugby World Cup?

TFRY: Our first podcast will be a general World Cup (Week of Sep 15th) preview but the next episode we will do a deeper dive into TRM Fantasy Rugby (later that week).

FRG: You also produce on your Twitter feed some really interesting statistical analysis around the players to pick and the ones to avoid with the Green Light/Stop Sign analysis. Can you tell us about this?

TFRY: It’s all about player form, the matchup that they have that week (strong against wings, weak against hookers and so on), and just a bit of gut instinct.

FRG: How popular is Rugby and Fantasy Rugby in the United States? Has the recent success of the US Sevens team, the growth of the MLR and the occasional international and club matches being played in the US helped to grow profile of the sport?

TFRY: The sport continues to grow, I believe fantasy rugby will catch because people love fantasy sports in the US. It’s just a matter of time. The MLR (go Free Jacks!) has definitely helped increase the profile of the sport (along with the 7s team and the Olympic 7s too). People that know nothing about the sport are more frequently talking to us about seeing a match on TV and how much they enjoyed it.

FRG: Moving on to the Rugby World Cup, how do you think the US Eagles will get on?

TFRY: The Eagles are on the right track, but we are in a tough group. Not much of a reward for our fastest RWC qualification in the history of USA Rugby. We are hopeful for 1 win and maybe picking up some bonus points depending on how things break, really this will be a good showcase about what kind of impact MLR is having on the Eagles.

FRG: Any bold predictions for this year’s World Cup?

TFRY: Fiji to win 3 games and Ireland don’t go beyond the Quarter-Finals (maybe not so bold after their recent result).

FRG: If there’s one single tip that you’d give to a new manager playing Fantasy Rugby for the World Cup, what would it be?

TFRY: Be diverse in selecting your squad, find guys from a wide variety of squads, not just the big guns and look for diverse players (players that are eligible for playing many positions)

FRG: What players will be first on your team sheet for the World Cup?

TFRY: Maro Itoje and Jynx aka Jamie George (can you tell we are Saracens supporters?)

FRG: Without giving away any secrets that you want to keep for your own teams, have you got your eyes on any players that you think should make an impact that may have a low ownership with other fantasy managers?

TFRY: No names specifically, look for Tier 2 players that are playing top end rugby in the top leagues (Ardron, Vui and Joe T are a few that come to mind). Also, look for guys on Tier 1 teams that are productive, yet fringe starters for their teams, they’ll play more games than the easy choices in pool play at least. When it comes to transfers, again, planning is key.

Some games will give you a tournament-wide allowance (in which case plan ahead, and avoid using them all up in the first couple of weeks) while others give you a per-gameweek allowance (in which case bring in players with a good selection of matches over the next 2-3 gameweeks so that you don’t have to transfer them out straight after transferring them in).

A massive thank you to Jarrod and Ben for their time. You can catch the Fantasy Rugby Yanks on all major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts and Podbean (Next episode, a Rugby World Cup preview will be out on the week of September 15th), so make sure you download it and leave a review.

If you want to follow Jarrod and Ben on Twitter, you can find them at @jdyke8man and @admrablsnackbar, and also make sure you join their RWC Mini-league on The Rugby Magazine here. 

Now what are you waiting for? Give it a listen!

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
  • 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 (Rugby World Cup review coming…).
  • SuperBru – An old favourite with salary cap fantasy rugby among other games and sports – Check out our review here.
  • The Irish Times – Salary cap game with a €3000 top prize – Check out our review here.
  • The Daily Telegraph – Salary cap game with a £5000 top prize – Check out our review here.

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.

Found this interesting or useful and looking for more Fantasy Rugby news, tips and advice? Follow @frugbygeek on Twitter, Like us on Facebook or sign up to the newsletter below to get fantasy rugby news delivered straight to you!

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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