What we learnt in fantasy rugby this week – Aviva Premiership Week 3

Fantasy Rugby Geekon

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

Captain Conundrum

The introduction of the new Rugby Magazine Fantasy Game has seen a lot of players experimenting with their teams as they attempt to work out the best way to maximise their weekly points. A big question that comes up time and again is who to captain? Well that’s obvious isn’t it! Fly halves or Outside backs obviously! They kick points and score tries! Well, apparently not, and in fact it couldn’t further from the truth.

We’ve crunched the stats by taking the Top 100 points scorers in the Rugby Magazine Fantasy Game this season, filtering out the players with less than 80 minutes under the belt and then sorted by “Points per 80 minutes”, and then shown the positional spread of the Top 50. It makes for fascinating viewing…

…there are NO fly halves in the Top 50, 1 Full Back and 3 Wingers. On the other hand, the points machines appear to be Hookers (although be conscious that most Hookers are rarely on the field for the full 80), Flankers, Locks and Scrum Halves. Food for thought. Choose your captain wisely, there is gold to be found in and around the pack!

Essential Sam Simmonds

There is no question who the form player in the league is. As written in this column two weeks ago, Exeter’s backup Number Eight is rapidly making a name for himself and will be making it very hard for Thomas Waldrom to make a return to the starting 15 when he recovers from injury. Simmonds is currently the highest scorer in the Rugby Magazine Fantasy Game and the third highest scorer in Fantasy Rugby Draft. His two tries on Friday night have added to some quite phenomenal stats in his first 3 games this season, including 4 tries, 1 assist, 189 metres gained, 6 clean breaks, 14 defenders beaten and an immense 45 tackles made. In this form, he is a must have for any fantasy team and will surely be getting the call from Eddie Jones if he keeps this quality of output up.

Give him an inch and he’ll take a Yarde

Another man putting himself firmly on Eddie Jones’ radar with some scintillating early season performances is Quins’ Marland Yarde. From attack, with a try per match record, to defence…


…Yarde has been making a statement to all the naysayers demanding that that EJ gives up on one of his favoured wingers to make room for Semesa Rokoduguni. On this form Yarde is proving his doubters wrong and is packing away some serious fantasy points in the process (particularly in Fantasy Rugby Draft, where he sits in 2nd in total rank behind the all conquering Saracens Front Row).

Under the radar, Underhill

He took a nasty looking injury during his Bath debut, but in the time he was on the field Sam Underhill fitted straight into the world of Aviva Premiership rugby with a hugely impressive performance, and a monumental 23 tackles made in the 67 minutes he was on the field…

The tackle count was obviously impressive, but his all round play impressed many and if he remains fit should yield returns for anyone choosing to add him to their fantasy team.