If anyone is interested in playing Fantasy Rugby World Cup there’s a FFScout community league on SuperBru.com that I urge you to join.
In my opinion it is the best rugby Fantasy game there is, with a smart scoring system that rewards good performances in every position – not just try-scorers and kickers. Â Here’s a quick guide.
THE RULES
You need to pick a squad of 23 players, with a limit of four players per team. Once you’ve picked and saved your squad, you will then need to pick a starting line-up of 15 players, including a captain (who will score double points) and a kicker (who will score points for penalties/conversions). You can also select back-ups for your captain and kicker, should they end up not playing for whatever reason.
You can make as many transfers in and out of your squad as you like prior to the tournament beginning. Once the tournament has started, you are limited to four transfers (rising to six in the knockouts) in between rounds – so make sure you get the balance of your squad right initially.
PICKING YOUR SQUAD
Four transfers in between rounds is not that many, so it’s worth looking at who you think will be the highest scorers over the course of the tournament, and getting them in early as the core of your squad. It’s a long tournament so every team will rotate, but there will be some guys that are so indispensable that they will play most of the time – they are the ones you want to get in.
So, who is going to be indispensable? Captains are a pretty good place to start. Guys like Stephen Moore for the Wallabies, New Zealand’s Richie McCaw and England’s Chris Robshaw all have excellent engines and will all play the bulk of the minutes for which their teams are in the tournament.
And that’s another thing to consider – which teams are going to make it through to the knockout stages? It’s all very well picking an unknown Samoan flyer, but you need to remember that you’re going to have to streamline your squad for the quarter-finals and onwards. Using the team limit of four for the sides that you think will make it deep into the tournament makes sense.
Most importantly, once you’ve picked your squad of 23, you’re not done – make sure you then go to the ‘Starting line-up’ page, and select your starting XV and specialists.
SELECTING YOUR CAPTAIN
The highest scoring players tend to come in the back three, because they have the most space to run around in, and therefore tend to make the most metres and beat the most defenders – and score the most tries. So it is therefore much more sensible to captain a guy like Izzy Folau, than a workhorse-like captain in the mould of Sam Warburton (although tackle count is also a good source of points).
Also pay close attention to fixtures – who is playing Uruguay or Namibia this week? Who has that team selected on the wing? All the record try-scoring performances in a World Cup have come against this sort of minnow, and these two teams look like the weakest in the tournament and will ship plenty of points.
MAKING YOUR TRANSFERS
Once you’ve got your core of players, picked your starting line-up and captain/kicker, then the points will start rolling in. In between rounds you will have four transfers to make – there’s no financial market to worry about, but use them wisely. Be aware of rotation, particularly when the big teams are playing the minnows, but starting teams tend to be announced a few days before kick off, so you’ll be able to see the lineups before the deadline in some cases.
