Who stood out? On the evidence of the weekend. are there any players we should be targeting for Round 1? Any positions scoring well under the fantasy scoring format? All this and more in the first ‘What we Learned’ of the Autumn Nations Series.
From a fantasy perspective, it’s hard to start anywhere else than the outstanding performance of Darcy Graham (read about his scintillating comeback). While many fantasy managers placed the captain’s armband on Duhan van der Merwe, it was his teammate on the opposite wing who led the way from a fantasy perspective with a sensational Player of the Match performance that resulted in a huge 83 fantasy points.
Returning to the international fold after over a year since his last Scotland appearance, Graham was a constant thorn in Fiji’s side, scoring four tries, carrying for 83 metres and beating seven defenders. The question now is whether this form can be ignored for the remaining three rounds of the Autumn Nations Series. He is now in a fascinating race with Van der Merwe for the record of Scotland's all-time record try-scorer - at one point in the match drawing level, before Van der Merwe scored - so both will be looking to add to their respective tallies this November. Scotland’s remaining games are against South Africa in Round 1, Portugal in Round 2 and Australia in Round 3. The Springboks will provide a sterner test for Graham, but Round 2 against Portugal could be another great opportunity from a fantasy perspective to gather points from this talented winger.
It wasn’t just all Graham however; in all there were some outstanding performers throughout the Scotland team. In addition to Graham, there were significant hauls from Huw Jones (67 points through 2 tries, 2 assists, 148 metres carried, 2 offloads, 6 defenders beaten and 10 tackles), Van der Merwe (50 points from one try, 176 metres carried – the highest of any player in Round 0, seven defenders beaten and one offload), Jack Dempsey (41 points from 92 metres carried, five defenders beaten, 15 tackles and 1 lineout steal) and Rory Darge (40 points from 23 tackles, two breakdown steals and two defenders beaten).
As we saw in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations fantasy game earlier this year, the value of kickers remains highly significant. In the 2024 Championship, four of the Top 10 average scorers with four or more appearances over the course of the tournament were kickers. 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. Both starting kickers in Round 0, Marcus Smith and Adam Hastings, appeared in the Top 10 scoring players, demonstrating the value in the fantasy game of anyone with kicking duties. In the upcoming rounds, if you find a kicker outside of the fly half spot then get them in.
Looking at the overall top scorers, while many fantasy players expected forwards to dominate the scoring (given the new scrum points and the increase to the points awarded for tries scored by forwards), the top four highest scorers (Darcy Graham, Huw Jones, Duhan van der Merwe and Marcus Smith) were all backs. This could also be down to the fact that in Round 0, all the Six Nations teams' tries were scored by backs, which won’t happen every round. It’s also interesting to note that seven of the eight highest scorers carried for over 80 metres, so when making your selections, look to the players who typically make multiple carries.
On to the Supersub selections, and Round 0 failed to yield a truly game-changing Supersub score. The highest fantasy score off the bench came from Tom Jordan with 24 points courtesy of 74 metres carried, four defenders beaten and three offloads. The next closest scorers were Ben Curry (13 points), Dylan Richardson (12 points), Max Williamson (12 points) and Theo Dan (11 points). With the exception of Jordan, all these scorers are forwards, suggesting that this remains the safest place to invest your Supersub allocation.
Looking ahead to Round 1 and the first full weekend of matches, with six games lined up. The match to keep the closest eye on from a fantasy points perspective is France v Japan. This is the match with the largest difference in world rankings out of the entire Autumn Nations Series schedule, with France ranked 4th and Japan ranked 14th. Japan will be no pushovers, but this match will still be the game with the highest volume of players selected for the fantasy game (a reminder that you are able to select up to 8 players from each Six Nations team). In terms of the remaining matches, the round kicks off with one of the games of the series: a replay of the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final between the current number one ranked team in the world, Ireland, and the world number three, New Zealand.
Australia also open their campaign with a match against England, where they will be looking for a change in their fortunes after a hugely disappointing Rugby Championship. Argentina kick off their Autumn Nations Series campaign with a visit to Udine to face Italy. South Africa open theirs against Scotland at Murrayfield in a repeat of a Rugby World Cup pool stage match that saw South Africa emerge victorious, and finally, in another RWC pool stage re-run, Wales welcome Fiji to the Principality Stadium.
Make sure you get your team ready as Round 1 comes around straight away, and don’t forget that the action gets started on Friday night. Stay tuned for more Fantasy Rugby Geek content this week, including the Round 1 picks, which will go live later in the week.
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