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[Shiny]

Selection was fairly kind to me but I have no luck whatsoever with locks ATM!

I have Vui, Lewies, DdP and Donnell out injured and Holmes benched. It’s a dilemma because I don’t want to release good players when I know their injuries are minor and the next couple of weeks will give them a bit of time to recover until the next round of Premiership games.

And that's the issue. Do you stick or twist. A conundrum I have most weeks although this weeks selection seems to have been kind to me overall.

[Puja]

And so it begins. All of my saved up money and two big name transfers out spent in one week just trying to get a team of 20 starters and 3 benches.

Puja

[Shiny]

And so it begins. All of my saved up money and two big name transfers out spent in one week just trying to get a team of 20 starters and 3 benches.

Puja

As I said, selection has been quite good to me this week. All green starters and mostly green on the bench too with only 1 red dot and 1 grey dot. I'm blooming glad though, its the last weekend for my team until boxing day to give a few injured/rested players a bit of extra time.

[Scrumhead]

And so it begins. All of my saved up money and two big name transfers out spent in one week just trying to get a team of 20 starters and 3 benches.

Puja

That was me last week ... my cash reserve is basically gone and one of the players I signed last week isn’t even starting this week.

[switchskier]

Feels like it's tougher this year. Player values are a bit higher and, whilst there are some cheap options, it's trickier to know whether they'll play or just be a drag on your roster after one emergency week.

[Puja]

Feels like it's tougher this year. Player values are a bit higher and, whilst there are some cheap options, it's trickier to know whether they'll play or just be a drag on your roster after one emergency week.

I think it's as much my continual poor decision-making that's making it hard. I needed to pick up a lock this week and equivocated between Wiese and Ribbans. Wiese hasn't yet played, but I'm already thinking I've made the wrong call...

Puja

[Stom]

Feels like it's tougher this year. Player values are a bit higher and, whilst there are some cheap options, it's trickier to know whether they'll play or just be a drag on your roster after one emergency week.

I think it's as much my continual poor decision-making that's making it hard. I needed to pick up a lock this week and equivocated between Wiese and Ribbans. Wiese hasn't yet played, but I'm already thinking I've made the wrong call...

Puja

lol. I went for Witty, and only put him on the bench because I thought Isiekwe would have a good game for me after he gave me his revenge last week for being dropped by using the force to injury out Vui and then scoring a try...

So he's starting and Witty is on the bench because Sale have only chosen 1 du Preez.

[Scrumhead]

Dan du Preez is injured. 2-4wks for a broken bone in his hand.

[switchskier]

Feels like it's tougher this year. Player values are a bit higher and, whilst there are some cheap options, it's trickier to know whether they'll play or just be a drag on your roster after one emergency week.

I think it's as much my continual poor decision-making that's making it hard. I needed to pick up a lock this week and equivocated between Wiese and Ribbans. Wiese hasn't yet played, but I'm already thinking I've made the wrong call...

Puja

lol. I went for Witty, and only put him on the bench because I thought Isiekwe would have a good game for me after he gave me his revenge last week for being dropped by using the force to injury out Vui and then scoring a try...

So he's starting and Witty is on the bench because Sale have only chosen 1 du Preez.

I think that everyone's after locks because so many of us had Lewies and Vui. I went with Joyce, following the old strategy of picking the replacement on the basis that they'll play whilst your guy is injured.

[Scrumhead]

That’s the annoying thing ... it was a ice between Joyce and Holmes. I went for the latter.

Joyce has literally scored twice as many points across the two rounds (56 vs 28). Not only that, if I’d picked Joyce, I probably wouldn’t have to have spent money on another starting lock. I didn’t have to drop points for it, but I’ve burned my cash reserve.

[Stom]

Better week from me, I’m somehow top of our pile for the week. Got lucky with a couple of calls. I just had a feeling Radwan would score and piers o’conor always scores.

The obligatory near ton of points for Simmonds helps

[Bloggs]

Absolute garbage from Reigate Royals so far, pressure on the DoR to turn things round

[Stom]

First time without any Sale players for a while...let's hope it doesn't bite me.

[Scrumhead]

I’ve got my eye on Puja his week. With a lot of usually reliable players scoring pretty poorly this week and 9 of his starting XV to play today, he could do well.

I thinking Quins visit to Gloucester could be a bit like last weekend’s game with Saints and could have some high scores.

Hard to predict on LI vs. Sale. Ordinarily, I’d have backed Sale but with key injuries and indifferent form, I wouldn’t bet against Irish.

[Puja]

I’ve got my eye on Puja his week. With a lot of usually reliable players scoring pretty poorly this week and 9 of his starting XV to play today, he could do well.

I thinking Quins visit to Gloucester could be a bit like last weekend’s game with Saints and could have some high scores.

Hard to predict on LI vs. Sale. Ordinarily, I’d have backed Sale but with key injuries and indifferent form, I wouldn’t bet against Irish.

I bloody have to turn it around somehow. I needed to buy a centre and a lock this week and decided against Ribbans and O'Connor in favour of Wiese and Rona, so they need to show up for me.

Didn't select Simmonds as captain, again - mostly because I don't like to bet against my own team, with a little touch of Barbeary would do well in Wasps' inevitable win against Newcastle. Not a great decision. Next week I'll pick Simmonds, so everyone else beware as that'll be the first week that he has a stinker.

Has anyone else noticed that the BT commentators have referenced fantasy rugby a lot this year? I've heard about 3-4 references to "That'll be an assist for X, if you're playing fantasy rugby" and Simmonds got pinged yesterday as "the most reliable scorer if you're playing fantasy rugby." Wonder if they're in this game.

Puja

[Stom]

I’ve got my eye on Puja his week. With a lot of usually reliable players scoring pretty poorly this week and 9 of his starting XV to play today, he could do well.

I thinking Quins visit to Gloucester could be a bit like last weekend’s game with Saints and could have some high scores.

Hard to predict on LI vs. Sale. Ordinarily, I’d have backed Sale but with key injuries and indifferent form, I wouldn’t bet against Irish.

I bloody have to turn it around somehow. I needed to buy a centre and a lock this week and decided against Ribbans and O'Connor in favour of Wiese and Rona, so they need to show up for me.

Didn't select Simmonds as captain, again - mostly because I don't like to bet against my own team, with a little touch of Barbeary would do well in Wasps' inevitable win against Newcastle. Not a great decision. Next week I'll pick Simmonds, so everyone else beware as that'll be the first week that he has a stinker.

Has anyone else noticed that the BT commentators have referenced fantasy rugby a lot this year? I've heard about 3-4 references to "That'll be an assist for X, if you're playing fantasy rugby" and Simmonds got pinged yesterday as "the most reliable scorer if you're playing fantasy rugby." Wonder if they're in this game.

Puja

If they are, we should go up against them as a team to absolutely thrash them. Lol.

[Scrumhead]

I don’t think the BT guys are, Ali Eykyn has on I think? Quite a few ex pros have teams (via the Restart Rugby link up). I know Monye, Flatman, Robshaw and Mark Lambert do. I think Christian Day does too.

It might not be them, but I’ve seen players calling themselves Harvey Skinner and Scott van Breda too.

Esterhuizen’s red killed my week. I’ll be lucky to top 400 when the points are finalised.

[Peej]

I had a terrible week. Rapava Ruskin and Woodward dropping out dragged me down, and Luke James continues to be an anchor of despair on my hopes of climbing the table.

[Puja]

I had a terrible week. Rapava Ruskin and Woodward dropping out dragged me down, and Luke James continues to be an anchor of despair on my hopes of climbing the table.

I think James is this year's Greg Bateman. You keep picking him on the expectation that he'll go back to the massive scores he had last season and don't dare drop him in case this is the week he comes good.

Puja

[Shiny]

I had a shocker this week. My crystal ball told me Sam Simmonds would have a bad week so I gave someone else the captaincy. Also loosing Rapava-Ruskin and Kitchener dented my points. A lot of my other reasonably high scoring players failed to get into double digits. Every 50/50 call I made went the wrong way. Yup, it was a shocker.

[Puja]

I had a pretty good week, especially considering my dire start to this year. Climbed to the top of my rugby team's league, which was good enough to just creep into the top 10 of our one.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

I had a terrible week. Rapava Ruskin and Woodward dropping out dragged me down, and Luke James continues to be an anchor of despair on my hopes of climbing the table.

I think James is this year's Greg Bateman. You keep picking him on the expectation that he'll go back to the massive scores he had last season and don't dare drop him in case this is the week he comes good.

Puja

As poor as James has been Esterhuizen’s -7 this week was a LOT worse for my side. I was hoping for 20+ points from him so it was a big contributor to a bad week for me.

[Peej]

The only solace I take is that I sold Van Rensburg and nearly signed Esterhuizen but decided to invest elsewhere instead. While those choices weren't exactly great, it meant the week wasn't as bad as it could otherwise have been!

Picked Barbeary as captain and he had his worse game yet.

[Puja]

Just a reminder to all that the Prem is back and you'll need to pick a team for Boxing Day. With 4 teams not playing, it's an easy selection weekend, as every player for Newcastle, Leicester, Bath, and London Irish will now get the average points for the round (which is usually around 18-20). Frankly, given my selection decisions of late, that'd be an improvement for me.

Puja

[switchskier]

Just a reminder to all that the Prem is back and you'll need to pick a team for Boxing Day. With 4 teams not playing, it's an easy selection weekend, as every player for Newcastle, Leicester, Bath, and London Irish will now get the average points for the round (which is usually around 18-20). Frankly, given my selection decisions of late, that'd be an improvement for me.

Puja

I've just taken the opportunity to sell Luke James, so probably a good week for everyone to start him. He'll probably get a hattrick.