Inevitably, however, when next Autumn Nations Series comes around, we will forget everything and revert back to the norm. So in an effort to help our future fantasy-playing selves, here’s a selection of lessons from the 2024 Autumn Nations Series not to forget ahead of next year!
Lesson 1: Return of the Backs
While the high scorers in the 2024 Six Nations fantasy game were all largely about the forwards, the majority of the high scorers in the Autumn Nations Series came from the backline. There could be a multitude of reasons for this, ranging from more open games against their Southern Hemisphere counterparts or the wider gaps in world rankings between teams, leading to larger differences in quality and resulting in more scoring opportunities for the backs. Either way, the backs were firing this Autumn!
Nine out of the 10 highest scorers - when looking at average points per match - were backs, including Scotland's Darcy Graham (who averaged 50 points per match, largely down to his four-try and 83 point bonanza in Round 0), France's Thomas Ramos (averaging 48.7 points per match), England's Marcus Smith (43.8 points per match), Ireland's Bundee Aki (42 points per match) and France's Louis Bielle-Biarrey (40 points per match). Also, looking at the total highest scorer in each round, they were from the backs in three out of the four rounds (Graham in Round 0, Bielle-Biarrey in Round 1 and Aki in Round 3 – the only exception being Scotland's Josh Bayliss’ 65-point haul from the Back Row in Round 2). Important to remember for your Captain selections next year.
Lesson 2: The Player of the Match remains the key to huge gameweeks
The official Player of the Match is awarded a very healthy bonus of 15 points, and this has made a big impact as part of the overall scoring. Looking at the top scorers in every week of the 2024 Autumn Nations Series, the recipients of the Player of the Match award were always right up there.
If you are able to predict the Player of the Match it provides a huge advantage. However, looking at the player of the match winners (Darcy Graham, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Joe McCarthy, Tom Jordan, Thomas Ramos, Dino Lamb, Charles Ollivon, Bundee Aki, Blair Kinghorn and Ollie Sleightholme from the fantasy points-eligible teams), there weren’t many trends to be found in the winners (apart from the fact that they were all on the winning team), so your best bet? Pick a great side packed with top-class players with a proven track record at international level - and who you back to win their game - and hope for the best.
Lesson 3: Kickers remain an ever-reliable source of points
The golden rule remains true: if in doubt, select a kicker over a non-kicker. As it was in the Six Nations, many of the highest average scorers in the game were kickers (Thomas Ramos on 48.7 points per game, Marcus Smith on 43.8 points per game, Finn Russell on 32.5 points per game and Josh Crowley on 29 points per game). In fact, in the Back Three, the only player with two or more appearances that had a higher average score than Thomas Ramos was Darcy Graham. And this was without Ramos even scoring a single try. With certain scoring metrics like tries, assists and breakdown steals being a bit more sporadic in nature, you simply can’t beat the reliability of kicking points. If you find a kicker categorised outside of the fly-half spot, like Ramos, then get them in. It’s a no-brainer.
Lesson 4: Look to the outliers
Looking at the average scores by position, there were certain players who made their position their own and regularly found themselves topping the fantasy points charts.
Considering players with two or more appearances, in the Back Three there were consistent high scores from Darcy Graham, Thomas Ramos, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Duhan van der Merwe, all of whom averaged over 30 points a game. In the Centres, Bundee Aki, Huw Jones and Tommaso Menoncello were in a league of their own, all averaging over 35 points, and comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. In the Fly-Half position, Marcus Smith was streets ahead of the competition with an average of 43.8 per match. As for the Scrum-Half position, needless to say it was all about Antoine Dupont, who averaged almost twice as many points as his closest competitor.
The Back Row was far more competitive with fewer outliers. Ben Earl was the highest-scoring Back Rower with an average of 36.5 points per game, but there were no fewer than 10 players with an average of 30 or more points. In the Second Row, again there was a good mix of high performers, but leading the way, and both averaging 28 points a game were James Ryan and Maro Itoje. Amongst the Props, the average score for players with two or more appearances was well below 20 points, but nonetheless scoring well were Georges-Henri Colombe, Pierre Schoeman and Jean-Baptiste Gros. Finally, at Hooker, the two standout players with two or more appearances were Peato Mauvaka (averaging 31 points a game) and Luke Cowan-Dickie (averaging 27.7 points per game). Cowan-Dickie’s achievement was all the more impressive considering all his appearances came off the bench. Speaking of which…
Lesson 5: Supersub is the magic ticket that will make or break your week
Supersub was an ongoing battle for fantasy managers over the course of the tournament. There were a few massive scorers coming off the bench over the course of the Series. Anyone who backed Paul Boudehent in Round 1 (54 points), Ollie Sleightholme in Round 1 (30 points), Georges-Henri Colombe in Round 2 (34 points) or Luke Cowan-Dickie in Round 3 (46 points) would have found themselves flying up the standings. For the rest of the tournament however there were regular stories of fantasy manager pain with players only getting five minutes or less off the bench or, in some cases, getting no minutes at all. Looking at the trends it was Hookers and Back Rowers getting the most time off the bench (unless teams needed to make a change due to an early injury – which was the case for both Colombe and Sleightholme in their high-scoring bench weeks), and so players in these two positions were most likely to create a Supersub return. So back your Back Rowers and Hookers (and hope for a bit of luck) with your Supersub selections!
So, there we have five lessons that all of us need to remember for next year's fantasy selections. Bring on 2025!
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