It’s time to reflect and review the big lessons from the weekend. Was it an anomaly or should we expect more like this? Should we be reviewing the weather forecast before selecting our teams? Are we seeing certain positions perform well against certain teams? Anything to note in the big Supersub scorers? All this and more in the latest ‘What we Learned’ of the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations Championship.
Round 2 was a particularly complicated round with scores in general being lower in the past and many heavily backed players delivering disappointingly low scores. Amongst the low scorers were Jamison Gibson-Park (9 points), Bundee Aki (6 points), Ronan Kelleher (8 points), Will Rowlands (8 points), Monty Ioane (8 points), Tommaso Menoncello (8 points) and Juan Ignacio Brex (5 points).
Ioane, Brex and Menoncello were all popular captain picks and so those who backed them went home very disappointed. This was reflected in the overall scoring with the average score being much lower than in Round 1. While a score of 500 was seen as a good score in Round 1, if anyone managed to achieve a score of 400 or more in Round 2, they would have found themselves flying up the mini leagues. This Round generally felt like a real anomaly, with players who have consistently delivered from a fantasy perspective in the past suddenly stopped delivering the fantasy points.
In situations like this, it is best not to have a kneejerk response and instead monitor the form and dip back in when you are ready. In the cases of Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Park (both of whom, in case you needed reminding, scored 30+ points in Round 1), Round 3 could be the perfect time to pick things back up as they face 6th place Wales.
In terms of why certain usual high performers did not deliver the points in Round 2, there could be multiple reasons. However, it was notable in Italy v Wales that out of all the 19 players to line up in the backs (starters and substitutes), only 5 players from scrum half to full back recorded 10 points or more. This was far lower than average. One aspect that could well have contributed to this was the atrocious weather conditions, which did not lend itself to running rugby and exhilarating back play.
With the rain in Rome relentlessly pouring down this was always going to be a game that would be played at close quarters, and the backs were impacted. With this in mind, to operate at elite level fantasy rugby IQ, it is well worth checking the local weather forecast before the game (unless the roof is closed in Cardiff!). While the weather impact should not be the “be all and end all” of your fantasy selection policy, if you are in a 50/50 selection dilemma between 2 backs and one is playing in glorious conditions while the other is set to play in an 80-minute downpour, then this should help guide your decision making.
Despite the low scores of some of the big guns, there were still plenty of high scorers to note. Topping the list was the hard carrying Italy Number 8, Lorenzo Cannone. Cannone delivered a huge 67-point haul courtesy of 104 metres carried, 7 defenders beaten, 17 tackles and 2 breakdown steals, and to top it off, he was awarded the Guinness Men’s Six Nations Player of the Match award. This is now the second Round in a row that the player lining up against Wales at Number 8 was the highest scoring player in the game. Ominous for Round 3, and Caelan Doris could well be a very popular pick and captain option for the next round. Doris himself was in outstanding form in Round 2 with the 3rd highest score of the week, delivering 53 points in a try-scoring performance against Scotland.
The 2nd highest score in Round 2 was Louis Bielle-Biarrey (56 points), who added 2 more tries to his name to become current overall top tryscorer on 4. Bielle-Biarrey is now the second highest fantasy points scorer overall in the game this season, on 97 points in total, and he is behind only his compatriot Gregory Alldritt, who is 1 point higher on 98 points. Rounding up the Top 5 highest fantasy scorers in Round 2 were two Player of the Match Fly-Halves in Sam Prendergast (46 points) and Fin Smith (39 points). Both of whom played instrumental roles in their team’s victories, and both were also great value picks in the fantasy game.
With budget always a struggle and fantasy managers always looking for good value options to enable the premium picks, it is reassuring to know that there are plenty of value options in the game. There are 6 players in the game who all scored over 25 points in Round 2 and are still available for under 15 stars. These include Sam Prendergast (13.3 stars), Fin Smith (10.7 stars), Tom Willis (11.3 stars), Jack Conan (13.4 stars), Robbie Henshaw (14.3 stars) and Taulupe Faletau (12.9) stars. If you are finding it hard to squeeze your selections in on the current budget level, then these six are a great place to look to allow you to spend big elsewhere!
Finally, this was a huge round for Supersub decisions, with one of the most popular SuperSub selections, Jack Conan, delivering for those who selected him. Conan scored 30 points, which resulted in a huge 90 points for those who picked him as their SuperSub. A saving grace for many players in such a tough round. Also delivering as supersubs were Aaron Wainwright (22 points), Fin Baxter (21 points), Stafford McDowall (18 points) and Elliot Daly (delivering 17 points in just 4 minutes of play off the bench). Comfortably the most popular SuperSub selection in this Round was Dan Sheehan, who delivered 10 pointsoff the bench (30 after the SuperSub multiplier), a disappointing return for those who selected him on the grounds of his Round 1 haul. Again, we saw a back rower as the top SuperSuboption. This definitely seems the position to target for your SuperSub selection.
So there’s five big lessons learned for Round 2. We have a week off before Round 3 comes around. Stay tuned for more Fantasy Rugby content next week, including the Round 3 picks, which will go live on Friday 21st February.
You can follow The Fantasy Rugby Geek on X or visit fantasyrugbygeek.com and play in the Fantasy Rugby Geek Leagues here.
