This year's fantasy game is now live, giving you the chance to outwit your friends, family, teammates, and colleagues—or even challenge the many experts competing from around the world.
From now until the opening whistle under the Friday night lights at the Stade de France on 31st January, you can tinker, tweak, and perfect your squad to secure bragging rights in your leagues. Whether you're a first-timer or a seasoned pro, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know about the 2025 game, including the latest updates and strategies to give you an edge.
A quick overview of the core rules of the game: You have a budget of 230 stars to build a squad of 15 starters and 1 player on your bench. You can select any player named in the Guinness Six Nations squads. However, each player has a different price (based on the player's reputation and likely performance in the game), so you need to manage your budget wisely and work to identify value players. Your team must consist of 3 back-three players, 2 centers, 1 fly-half, 1 scrum-half, 3 back rows, 2 second-rows, 2 props, and 1 hooker; while your bench player can be from any position. It is important to note that you can only select a maximum of 4 players from the same country. You can also use the auto-pick function if you want to quickly select your team before you do any tinkering.
In addition, for each round, you will have two bonus chips you can assign to your selection. These are the Captain and the Supersub. These will be familiar to those who have played the game before, but for the uninitiated, the player you select as Captain will have their points doubled, while the player you select as Supersub will have their points TREBLED. It is important to clearly understand the supersub rules; you must select a player who is beginning the match on the bench. If you select a starter in the Supersub position, you will only get half their points. There are strategies to the Supersub selection, but more on that later!
Points are awarded for a variety of Attacking actions and Defensive actions. From an attacking perspective, points are awarded for Tries (15 pts for forwards and 10 pts for a back – a tweak from last year’s Six Nations game), Try assists (4 pts), Try conversion (2 pts), Penalty kick (3 pts), Drop goal (5 pts), Defenders beaten (2 pts), Carried metres (1 pt per 10m made), and 50-22 kicks (7 pts). While on the defensive side, points are awarded for Tackles (1 pt), Breakdown steals (5 pts), and Lineout steals (7 pts). Finally, there is a massive 15 points on offer for the Official Player of the Match, so choose carefully!
You will also need to be careful if you have players prone to disciplinary issues, as there are points deductions in place for conceded penalties (-1 pt), yellow cards (-5 pts), and red cards (-8 pts).
In addition to the increased points for tries for forwards, there are a couple of other new scoring metrics for the 2025 Men’s Six Nations Game (that were also in place for the 2024 Autumn Nations Series fantasy game). Firstly, an offload to hand is worth 2 points (The player will receive this if their supporting player is able to successfully catch the ball directly). In addition, all the team’s forwards on the pitch will get a point each when they win their own scrum.
Fantasy rugby is as much about the competition as it is about the camaraderie. Create your own league in the Leagues tab and invite friends to join the fun. You can also set up private leagues with custom rules, such as personalised budgets or team size limits. Keep in mind, though, that private leagues with custom rules won’t be eligible for prizes.
Some great prizes are on offer for the best players in each round, and in the overall ranking by the end of the tournament, including, for the overall winner, two tickets to a 2026 Guinness Six Nations match of your choice, with flights (within Europe), hotel accommodation and experience tourism pass in the city included! (for 2). If you finish from 2nd to 5th, you will win a Guinness Men's Six Nations Rugby Ball signed by all the captains and coaches of the participating teams. There are prizes for the highest scorer of each round to, with a £100 voucher to spend at fanatics.com. Finally, if you win the "Official Scottish Rugby Fans" league (league number 139,412), you’ll win 2 x Tickets to each Scotland Home Game of the 2025 Autumn Nations Series. With this in mind, it's crucial that you make a good start. So here are five initial tips to help build your team to give you the best shot from the start!
Firstly, above all, it's key that you hold off finalising your team until all the starting lineups are announced. It's definitely a good thing to build some drafts before the tournament to familiarise yourself with the player pool and the prices, but don't finalise your team until you know everyone playing. You will know if a player is selected to start or be on the bench for each round, as an icon next to the player will indicate if the player is a starter, a substitute, or not called-up in the matches. In addition, occasionally a player will suffer an injury between the announcement and kick-off, for example, like Damian Penaud for France in their opening game of the Autumn Nations Series against Japan and will have a late replacement, so keep a close eye on the team news and be ready for any switches needed.
Next up, don't feel bound to make a limited number of transfers. Unlike other games, Guinness Six Nations Fantasy Rugby 2025 allows you to completely tear up your team for no points penalty in between rounds. This means you can load your team fully optimized for each round. If you need to make 15+ changes, then don’t hold back. Just do it!
The 2025 Men’s Six Nations fantasy game is a salary cap game, so how you allocate your budget is key. One key point to note is that players' values go up and down throughout the tournament based on their popularity, so you can build your team's maximum value throughout the tournament. This can be of enormous value come the closing couple of rounds of the tournament, so make your transfers wisely, and if you have any players in your side who may lose value (they could be injured or out of favour with the coaches), then ship them out ASAP! Play the market: each player's value will evolve, increasing or decreasing, according to their real performance. This means you'll make a profit - or a loss - after each round if you decide to sell a player.
Another top tip is around kickers. Very often in fantasy rugby games, you are obliged to select one kicker to gain points from conversions, penalties, drop goals, etc. Not here, so if you can find kickers who play outside of the fly-half position (for example, Thomas Ramos), then they are well worth picking up, as they are guaranteed kicking points.
Finally, have a strategy for your supersub, which when played well, can be an absolute game-changer. There is often luck involved, for example, if one of the starting XV needs to go off in the early stages of the game, but likewise, you could be at the mercy of a coach who decides to leave his backs on the bench for the entire 80 minutes, so you have to play the percentages and consider the risks.
For me, there are three key areas to consider in a supersub. Firstly, will they come on, and will they play a significant period of time? For this, we see Props, Hookers, and Scrum-Halves tend to come on typically between the 45-60 minute point, so they usually get some good game time (and often hookers find themselves on the end of a driving maul and so bring an added try threat). With Locks and Loose Forwards, it is not rare to see a starting Lock or Loose Forward play the full 80. That said, Locks and Back Rowers are not typically left on the bench either. Fly Halves are a bit more unpredictable; they could come on early if the game plan is not working, but likewise, sometimes a change is too disruptive and can be left late, and in some cases not at all. Centres and Back 3 are also a bit of a lottery.
Next up, take a look at previous games to see if there are any trends in how the team operates their replacements. In some cases, past matches can provide a pretty educated insight into how a team will play their bench.
Finally, is your prospective supersub the only option on the bench in their position? If a team is playing a 6-2 split on the bench, for example, then that is probably a good time to select a utility back as they are far more likely to come on in time to make a decent impact.
Good luck, with triple points on offer, a successful supersub pick can propel you to the very top!
Throughout the tournament, Fantasy Rugby Geek will be sharing insights and strategies to help you climb the leaderboard and earn ultimate bragging rights. Be sure to check back regularly on the Guinness Six Nations website for updates and advice. You can follow The Fantasy Rugby Geek on X or visit fantasyrugbygeek.com and play in the Fantasy Rugby Geek Leagues here.
