The Rugby Magazine Fantasy Game 2021/22

[Puja]

Yeah, it's a difficult one this week with Northampton being off. Had to sell three, but managed to get a team of greens with only 3 greys on the bench, which is better than I thought I would!

Putting all my eggs in the "Bath getting stuffed" basket again, not that it paid off for me last week.

Puja

[Peej]

I'm the same. I hope the three players I bought with the money I got for selling my third player earn more than 20! It's the cup this week, and I've been drawn against someone nearly 2,000 places below me but who outscored me last week and has a team of impressive players!

[Scrumhead]

Yeah. The cup can be deadly.

I’m now questioning my boldness

So far, this has been my best ever season but it’s so hard to keep up with the leaders. I’m 13th but even the top 10 feels almost impossible to crack, let alone top 5.

[FKAS]

Yeah. The cup can be deadly.

I’m now questioning my boldness

So far, this has been my best ever season but it’s so hard to keep up with the leaders. I’m 13th but even the top 10 feels almost impossible to crack, let alone top 5.

13th in the RugbyRebels league? If so I'm sat just behind you, been slowly catching over the last few weeks.

[Puja]

Yeah. The cup can be deadly.

I’m now questioning my boldness

So far, this has been my best ever season but it’s so hard to keep up with the leaders. I’m 13th but even the top 10 feels almost impossible to crack, let alone top 5.

13th in the RugbyRebels league? If so I'm sat just behind you, been slowly catching over the last few weeks.

Noooo, Scrumhead's actually very good at this game. They mean 13th **overall**. Baffling to me how someone can be that good at it and consistently score so highly.

Puja

[switchskier]

Three grey dots on the bench and one empty slot is the best I can do. Don't think that selling one and buying two cheap will net me 20+ points though so playing a bit safe.

I am loading up on cheap players that won't play after the 6N sadly.

[Peej]

Three grey dots on the bench and one empty slot is the best I can do. Don't think that selling one and buying two cheap will net me 20+ points though so playing a bit safe.

I am loading up on cheap players that won't play after the 6N sadly.

Definitely doing the same here. My squad has ballooned in size.

Some weird things going on with the player values though. Some have completely dropped through the floor, for no discernible reason. Elsewhere there are some real bargains still.

[FKAS]

Yeah. The cup can be deadly.

I’m now questioning my boldness

So far, this has been my best ever season but it’s so hard to keep up with the leaders. I’m 13th but even the top 10 feels almost impossible to crack, let alone top 5.

13th in the RugbyRebels league? If so I'm sat just behind you, been slowly catching over the last few weeks.

Noooo, Scrumhead's actually very good at this game. They mean 13th **overall**. Baffling to me how someone can be that good at it and consistently score so highly.

Puja

Blimey. Does he play this because his local bookies have banned him due to him taking them to the cleaners every week?

[Shiny]

To cheer up anyone at the lower end of our little league with me I have managed to get a team of starters out but my bench looks like an explosion in a red paint factory.

[Peej]

Irish playing utter shite is killing me so far

[FKAS]

Irish playing utter shite is killing me so far

Hoskins did me alright but Rowe and van Rensburg had fairly average performances. Could have been worse for me but I was hoping for a bit more.

[Puja]

I came *so* *close* to naming McFarland as my captain this week, on the basis that Sarries would stuff Bath, he's a mobile lock, and locks tend to score well in big wins cause they get more points for passes and metres than back rows do. At the last minute, I decided to go with Lozowski.

77 points versus 19. Bugger.

Puja

[FKAS]

I picked up Roebuck but opted to leave him on the bench as I had Radwan and Rowe playing in what I thought would be open games. Thankfully wasn't quite as big a gap as that though my two starting wingers scored a solitary point more than Roebuck from the bench.

[Scrumhead]

13th in the RugbyRebels league? If so I'm sat just behind you, been slowly catching over the last few weeks.

Noooo, Scrumhead's actually very good at this game. They mean 13th **overall**. Baffling to me how someone can be that good at it and consistently score so highly.

Puja

Blimey. Does he play this because his local bookies have banned him due to him taking them to the cleaners every week?

I wish!

I make plenty of mistakes on this game too. Last week I had a 50:50 choice of who to sign between Lamb and McFarland. I went for the former and it started well when he scored against Bath, but he’s now injured. In he meantime, McFarland posted a whopper of a score.

My best finish has been 27th and I’m hoping to better that this season.

TBH, it sounds really obvious, but picking the right squad at the beginning is key. With limited free transfers, fixing mistakes is tough. I made a couple of errors, but I was able to correct them early on and for the most part I’ve been pretty lucky with injuries.

Planning for the bye weeks is important. I keep track of who has a bye coming up and try to map out how I’ll cope without that clubs players. I also tried to limit myself to no more than 4 per club (to combat the byes) but I’ve now got a couple with 5.

Aside from that, the main change I’ve made this season is resisting panic buys. In the past, I’ve bought poorly just to fill a spot and then struggled to offload the bad signing for weeks afterwards. It’s often better to get nothing (particularly if it’s a bench player) than to be stuck with a player who’s not making you any points and is too cheap to generate you any meaningful transfer funds.

Lastly, I very rarely drop points to make signings. Generally I only do it if I would have scored a 0 anyway. For example, I would have had a hole on my bench this round so I sold an extra player I’d been meaning to shift for a while to sign Radradra. My (incorrect) assumption was that he’d probably make me the 20pts back. He didn’t this week, but while I have 8pts less for the round, I have a player with high scoring potential I can use next week, whereas the one I let go definitely won’t be playing. If he doesn’t start scoring well, he’s a good money-maker.

[FKAS]

It's my first season playing and there was definitely some errors in the initial selection. I've managed to move them on now and had three consecutive 400+ point weeks which is nice and hopefully indicates that I've learned something.

Spending a pile on Piatau really was an error. In fact the four initial Bristol signings I made were all pretty bad scorers. I hope Radrada works out better for you than those Bristol signings did for me. Even Luatua was a poor points to pound spent return.

Thanks for the tips I'll keep those in mind.

[Shiny]

On the downside only 336 points this week. On the plus side it was enough to get me through the first round of the cup.

[Peej]

I'm currently edging my cup tie by 3 points, pending the Sunday score adjustment. The person I'm playing has recorded their two biggest scores week on week!

Got all my 50:50s wrong this week. Quirke over Maunder, Northmore over Morris, Rowe over Hodge, Rogerson over Christie

[Scrumhead]

It's my first season playing and there was definitely some errors in the initial selection. I've managed to move them on now and had three consecutive 400+ point weeks which is nice and hopefully indicates that I've learned something.

Spending a pile on Piatau really was an error. In fact the four initial Bristol signings I made were all pretty bad scorers. I hope Radrada works out better for you than those Bristol signings did for me. Even Luatua was a poor points to pound spent return.

Thanks for the tips I'll keep those in mind.

I had Piutau, O’Conor, Vui and Thacker in my original squad. I think everyone got suckered in there.

That said, Bristol seem to be coming back in to form with the return of a few key players making a big difference. I was actively avoiding Bristol players but I’ve just signed two!

I probably take it to an unusual level of detail, but it’s worth pointing out that where a player is picked can make a big difference to their score. Piers O’Conor is a good example. I’ve noticed he scores well at 12 (averaging 24pts over his last 5 starts when played at 12) but doesn’t when he’s at 13 (average of 7pts for his last 5 starts at 13). Obviously the data isn’t a 100% reliable indicator, but I use those kind of observations to inform my decision-making.

Radradra is a good example of a relatively low-risk investment IMO. If he starts scoring well, happy days. If not, his value has already gone up by £23k since I signed him so I can sell at a profit.

[FKAS]

Good point on POC, he really didn't start the season well but might be part of the Bristol second half of the season comeback.

Selling for a profit is a good point, I've managed to offload a few for big increases allowing better overall quality. Unfortunately international players values have dropped quite a bit so left hanging onto a couple of those for a few fruitless weeks.

[Peej]

The recount was kind, and I went through to the next round of the cup. I've even climbed a couple places in our league on successive weeks.

[Shiny]

The recount was kind, and I went through to the next round of the cup. I've even climbed a couple places in our league on successive weeks.

Yeah, I won my cup tie by 4 points. I doubt I will be in the cup after the next round though on current form.

[Peej]

Actually struggling this week. Some surprise rotation has left me short. I've tried to take Scrumhead's advice and take the zeros rather than a 20-point hit, but I have had still had to invest in a couple of cheaper players. I think both of them will play more the rest of the season though, and aren't one-week wonders (like others I've bought previously). I've also retained a bit of a fighting fund for the weeks ahead that I'm going to try and grow.

So while I'm all green in the starting XV, I have four greys and a red on the bench.

[Scrumhead]

Choice of captain can make such a massive difference. I’ve only got it spot on (in other words, picking my highest scoring player of the round) twice in 16 rounds, but I’m absolutely excellent at picking the Vice Captain who is almost always the guy I should have picked.

JLDP’s score might rise overnight, but FFS, if I picked Montoya, I’d have been laughing!

[FKAS]

Choice of captain can make such a massive difference. I’ve only got it spot on (in other words, picking my highest scoring player of the round) twice in 16 rounds, but I’m absolutely excellent at picking the Vice Captain who is almost always the guy I should have picked.

JLDP’s score might rise overnight, but FFS, if I picked Montoya, I’d have been laughing!

Yeah not to rub salt into the wound or anything but Montoya netted me something like 118 points which I badly needed considering Cole got me nil and Hoskins who's previously been reliable had an off week.

[Scrumhead]

Yeah. It’s super frustrating. When it comes down to it, it’s only actually 30 points (Montoya’s 59 + JLDP’s 58 = 117 whereas Montoya as captain scoring 118 + 29 from JLDP would have been 147).

Obviously I’d have preferred more points but the difference is not always as big as it seems.