What we learnt in fantasy rugby this week – Aviva Premiership Week 2

Fantasy Rugby Geekon

Another week in Premiership Rugby, and this is what we learnt…

Roko-Houdini

2 Games

3 tries

Average metres gained = 124m

8 defenders beaten

Roko is a man on fire and an absolute points machine at the moment. He’s putting himself firmly in the fantasy “essential” bracket right now. Beg, steal or borrow whatever you can to put Roko-Houdini in your fantasy sides…

Worcester Worries

It goes from bad to worse for Worcester with further injuries to front row lynchpin Nick Schonert and first choice 10 Tom Heathcote adding to an already quite lengthy injury list. Gary Gold is looking for replacements, however despite a respectable performance against the attacking threat of Wasps, the signs are ominous for the Warriors who look to be finding themselves sucked into “Relegation battlers” territory. At this rate, teams facing Worcester could be a very reliable source of points.

Falcons Flying

Newcastle on the other hand are going from strength to strength, and this is without a large number of first choice starters. Widely tipped as dark horses at the start of the season, the Falcons are certainly backing up those predictions. Their performances this season have been founded on the basis of a rock solid pack, which includes some outstanding fantasy rugby performers including Calum Green, Rob Vickers, Will Welch and Will Witty; not forgetting to mention the man marshalling the pack, the explosive (and goal-kicking) Sonatane Takulua.

That said, we’ll gain a true indication of their credentials this weekend when they face up to this lot in Philly…

OOPs we called it again

As we flagged on Friday, it is always worth picking up players who are being played favourably out of their usual positions. A few of these OOP (out of position) gems popped up with tries this weekend and you will often be rewarded in fantasy rugby when you find a centre playing on the wing, a lock in the back row or a hooker in the back row. Two examples of this out of position benefit occurred this weekend with Dave Ward running in against Gloucester and Don Armand’s brace against Irish. We’ll aim to flag any out of position opportunities in our weekly tips, published every Friday afternoon.

Prop Idols

We’re keeping an eye out for ball carrying props given the Rugby Magazine’s scoring of one point per metre gained, and particularly after Vincent Koch and Alex Waller’s bonanza’s in week 1. There was less to go off this week, but lots of potential was shown by Biyi Alo, Jake Cooper-Wooley, Kyle Sinckler, Ethan Waller and Halani Aulika. Definitely a stat to keep an eye on.