One big weekend ahead to make the march up your fantasy leagues, so it’s time to take a look at the big stories from Round 2 and see if there is anything to take away for Round 3!
The centre of the fantasy points this week, as in Round 0, was Scotland. They were heavily backed this weekend in the fantasy game as they took on Portugal at home. The final score of 59-21 - you can read the match report here - highlighted the dominance they exerted in the match, and indeed three of the top five fantasy scorers this week were from Scotland. However, it wasn’t all the names that everyone expected topping the scoring. Leading the way with a massive 65-point haul was Josh Bayliss, courtesy of a try, 91 metres carried, three defenders beaten, two breakdown steals and two lineout steals. Also racking up the points was Tom Jordan with 53 points to his name. Lining up at fullback, Jordan carried for 152 metres, made two offloads, beat six defenders and made one try assist.
Finally, when it came to tries, while Darcy Graham was the most captained player in the game by some margin this week (and scored a very respectable 33 points), it was his counterpart on the opposite wing, Arron Reed, who had the bigger return, bringing in 49 points through a two-try performance. Worth mentioning for Scotland is that they also had two of the top three scoring props in the game this week: Will Hurd (28 points) and Jamie Bhatti (27 points). Edinburgh was the place to be for big points (although less so on the Supersub front, more on which later).
Close behind Josh Bayliss in the highest scorers this week was Thomas Ramos, with 60 points. When it comes to fantasy scoring, Ramos is truly the picture of consistency. His ability with the boot is well known, and on Saturday night again his kicking was outstanding, successfully scoring six out of six kicks at goal. However, it is his all-round game, which on Saturday included two try assists, 14 tackles, 41 metres carried and one offload, that consistently takes his fantasy scores to the highest level. In two games this Autumn Nations Series he has averaged 56 points per game. Regardless of the opposition, he always delivers. This is on top of a stellar Guinness Men's Six Nations where he had the highest average fantasy score of any Back Three player in the game. If in doubt, go with Mr Consistency with one of your Back Three picks.
Round 2 was the week of the big Back Row fantasy scores. six of the top 10 fantasy scores this week came from Back Rowers. There was Josh Bayliss’s huge haul as mentioned above, but fantasy managers also had big returns from Jac Morgan (51 points – including a phenomenal 27 tackles and a breakdown steal to boot), Josh van der Flier (41 points – including 24 tackles and a breakdown steal), Sam Underhill (40 points – including a try, a breakdown steal and 11 tackles) and Ben Earl (38 points – including two breakdown steals, 13 tackles, 70 metres carried, two defenders beaten and one offload). With so many outstanding Back Row options, this is where you should be investing your stars for the upcoming round this weekend!
Last weekend was a tough week for most Supersub selectors. There were only four players who came off the bench who scored more than 15 points. A big pat on the back for anyone who selected Georges-Henri Colombe, Christ Tshiunza, Manuel Zuliani or Luke Cowan-Dickie. Colombe, who came on in the ninth minute after an early injury to Tevita Tatafu, went on to score 34 points in a performance that included 11 tackles and three breakdown steals. Cowan-Dickie also made a big impact in his appearance off the bench with two lineout steals and one breakdown steal, leading to 25 points. Accumulating the same score was Tshiunza, mostly through his 21 tackles. Zuliani also delivered 24 points. It was a much tougher day for those who selected the most popular Supersub picks, Johnny Matthews and Kyle Rowe. Matthews’ club form couldn’t translate in the 15 minutes he was on the field, resulting in just 1 point. Rowe fared marginally better from a fantasy points perspective, but still only brought in four points.
With just one round of fantasy scoring left, make sure you get your team ready ahead of this week’s Friday game, France v Argentina. Stay tuned for more Fantasy Rugby content this week, including the Round 3 picks, which will go live later in the week.
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