Dream Team on Tour

Hello #DreamTeam,

Rugby World Cup, Toulouse and Marseille

What a week! The opening weekend of the World Cup was all that it promised to be, and I was lucky enough to be there for some of it. The wife and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the England vs Argentina game this weekend (and the rest of the pool stage games and Quarter Finals) so we spent the weekend travelling to Marseille via Toulouse for the game. The journey was long, I tallied it all up and between Wednesday and Tuesday morning I spent about 45 hours in the car, but it was sooooo worth it!

Having set of at 02:00 on Thursday morning, I was dreading the initial journey. We hadn’t booked hotels beforehand, opting to take a more laissez faire approach and stopping if we found somewhere we took a liking to, the wife’s idea. I prefer a more ordered approach so my nerves were already up and trying to plan where might be a likely stopping point and what the availability would be like, in one of the few major European countries I don’t speak any of the language! My fears proved massively unfounded.

The first stop was Le-Touquet on the north coast of France. It was only about half an hour out of the way of our route so we thought it would be nice to stop off at the England training ground and see who we might bump into. It’s easy to see why England chose Le Touquet as their base, a small town on the northern coast of France, it is quaint with plenty of gold courses and cafes for the occasional time off. The training ground is easy enough to find, I knew they were staying at the Holiday Inn and the training ground is directly opposite. The people of Le-Touquet had put on a warm welcome with boards in the shape of shirts with the squad names on a nice touch as you drive into the town, and there was a very relaxed atmosphere. The squad could be heard training on the pitch behind a screened fence but otherwise people were enjoying a game of tennis or a quick swim in the facility, seemingly unphased by 33 English rugby players taking over large swathes of their club.

After a 9-hour drive through the French countryside we arrived just outside of Toulouse for dinner and to sleep for the night. As an aside, if you’re planning to travel to France for any games this world cup, remember to get your Crit’Air sticker from the French government here. Most French cities have low emission zones which you won’t be able to drive through without the sticker or risking a fine. The following day we went into Toulouse and checked into the hotel. We had some time in the afternoon before heading to the Fan Zone for the New Zealand vs Fance game, so we went for a stroll through the pink city. You could immediately see the deep-rooted love of rugby within the city. Shops had rugby paraphernalia in the windows, bars lined with the flags of countries competing in the World Cup and people everywhere sporting either France Rugby or Stade Toulousain shirts. After a lovely late lunch along the river, we started making our way to the Fan Zone.

We wanted to make it in good time thinking it might get busy, and we were right. Arriving 2 hours early the Fan Zone, the largest in France with a capacity of 40,000, was already filling up. There was a definite buzz about the place, flags flying, chanting and then came the team announcement. My god, they love Antoine Dupont down there! His name was greeted by a raucous cheer from all in the crowd which dwarfed that of any other player. Once the game started the atmosphere was electric! The crowd was full, and you could feel the ebbs of flow of the game. The ups were celebrated ferociously, flares were lit, bottles thrown, and ecstatic shouting rang out, and in the moments where New Zealand found themselves on the front foot, you could cut the tension in the crowd with a knife.

After a great night in Toulouse, it was off to Marseille. The drive along the south of France took us through some beautiful scenery and a quick stop in Montpellier. We arrive in Marseille just in time to stop at Vieux Port where you were met by a sea of white shirts the port was bustling with activity between those who had tickets hurriedly making their way to the metro and those who had made the trip just to be close to the action in the fan zone, the bars along the port were full to (and often over) capacity and again the atmosphere was palpable.

Despite the well reported difficulty of getting into the stadium we had no problems. I suspect the problem arose as there were two stops to the stadium, the last and penultimate stop on the Metro line, and the stop you were to get off on depended on the stand you were in. On my train, it almost emptied after the first of the two stops, and I suspect people were in a hurry to get to the stadium and hadn’t checked which side of the stadium they should have been entering from. There were plenty of famous faces around, even running into Will Greenwood on the journey over.

My wife found us in the highlights, Not bad seats!

After what was a quick and easy entrance for us, we made our way to our seats which were INCREDIBLE! 9 rows back from the pitch, we had splashed out on Category 1 tickets which were 100% worth it. We were so close to the action, and it was fantastic to feel so close to the game and the players we all follow so closely. I fear I may have created a rod for my own back now though as the wife has asked why all the games, we go to the tickets aren’t as good.

In the beginning the stadium rang out with the Argentinian contingent singing and chanting while most of the English fans could be found queuing at the bar but that soon changed come kick off and it wasn’t long before Swing Low was booming from the English contingent of the over 60,000 fans at the game. The anthems were a bit…odd and none of the fans around us, me included, were really able to follow along with the music. I’m hoping that the news this week sees this fixed for the coming games!

Despite not being a showcase for running, attacking rugby the game was exciting to be a part of. After Tom Curry’s red card, the crowd notably galvanised behind the team, and you could feel them willing the boys on. When Ford dropped the first of his 3 goals, the crown exploded with cheers, which on watching the highlights is hard to get a sense of without being there but it was almost as if an enormous pressure had been relieved, and we had started to believe. After that the Argentinians became significantly more subdued! A superb defensive effort from the likes of Itoje, back to his nausey best, Lawes, Ludlam, Tuilagi and Earl ensured that England always looked in control despite being down to 14 men. The only mildly annoying thing about the game was that before the weekend’s games had started, I had moved Ford in and out of my fantasy team (as much as I would like to claim it was by foresight, it was more down to budget) ultimately settling on Tomasso Allan, I was kicking myself on the journey home with his points tally!

We had to get a ferry home the next day ready to start work for Monday, so we left straight after the game (after a 1 hour walk from the stadium into town after one look at the queue for the metro) to start the 10-hour drive back up to Calais, thus ending an amazing weekend and my first real experience of France and it’s love of Rugby. If that was anything to go by, this is going to be a World Cup to remember!

Business week in review

With all the world cup activity, business activity has been comparatively low this week but that’s not to say that we haven’t made progress. We have at long last been able to establish business banking as up to now it has all been coming out of my own account and the wife hasn’t been best pleased. It might sound like a relatively small step but with the nature of our business it has proven challenging and it’s a significant step in the right direction.

We have also received all the contracts for design and are ready to start on that process. It’s been useful reading all the reviews on twitter of the Rugby World Cup fantasy rugby game, as we’ve been able to identify some issues we knew about and even some we didn’t before we even kick off which is a major boost and will only enhance your experience when the game is released in 2024. Perhaps more interestingly though, Ni and I were grateful to be invited onto the Pirate Rugby Podcast with Huw and Enda. It was good fun to sit down with them for an hour and talk all things rugby and Fantasy. We picked a team (1 player from each nation) for the week, I haven’t heard from the guys yet how it got on, but I’ll see if we can get an announcement on the next instalment.

Fantasy Rugby Review

So, the Fantasy this week…In terms of points I came away with 524 points…eventually. Not as high as I would have liked but a respectable haul which has put me 183rd out of 3,376 in the Dream Team League. Not too bad, but the goal next week is to get within the top 100. I also find myself 5,439th of all 86,740 England fans playing the game. That puts me in the top 10%, my goal next week is to go to the top 5%. I’ll talk about how later in the blog. Also, importantly I haven’t used any of the boosters, but that might change this week.

I was hoping for more points from my captain, James Lowe but at just over 100 at last count I can’t complain too much. World Rugby just put out the top performing players in the Fantasy in each position, I had 2 of the 15, Taniela Tupou for Australia and Michael Leitch for Japan. I had gone heavy with the Irish back three, but had you chosen your locks and fly half from the Irish team you would be in a VERY good place. I would love more information on the scoring metrics though as I had Uini Antonio and Cameron Woki who brought in 1 and 4 points respectively. Given that players are given a point for getting on the pitch I’m not sure what happened to only get one point.

A couple of points about the game itself, I would love for the points to update more accurately in real time. There will obviously be a slight delay and some minor errors as will inevitably be the case with our game when we launch, but the swing seemed to be quite big. I would also appreciate, as I’m sure many of you would, the ability to review others’ teams post the game, I want to see who the winners picked, but maybe I’m just nosy!

Fantasy Rugby Look Forward

Last week we talked about the principle of selecting for mismatches, you can read all about it here, and this week we’ll be sticking with this strategy. There are some fantastic games to choose from this week with us identifying the below as the biggest mismatches;

1. France (3rd) V Uruguay (17th)

2. New Zealand (4th) V Namibia (21st)

3. Samoa (11th) V Chile (22nd)

4. Wales (8th) V Portugal (16th)

5. Ireland (1st) V Tonga (15th)

6. South Africa (2nd) V Romania (19th)

While England V Japan is the same numerical mismatch as Wales V Portugal, I have given Japan the benefit of the doubt and left the game out particularly given the mismatches there. The other new element of this week is team rotation. The likes of New Zealand and France have rotated their team against this opposition which will give you some great value options and you should be able to make your credits go further. For my money, I’ve chosen Wales V Portugal, with Wales galvanised after a week of criticism after their controversial win over Fiji. France V Uruguay and South Africa V Romania as both nations have an incredible depth of talent and high try scoring game plan. Finally, Samoa V Chile and New Zealand V Namibia.

My Team is below;

1. Dillon Lewis (Wales): Rotated in after last week and at 4.5 good value against Portugal

2. Pierre Bourgarit: La Rochell hooker, not seen much recently at test level given the prominence of Marchand and Mauvaka but a great chance for a start and you don’t make the French team if you can’t play. 7

3. Nicky Smith: Similar to Dillon and at 4 credits, should be a good pick.

4. Theo Mcfarland: An incredible player and athlete, a lock with power and pace instrumental for Saracens this year before injury and, if selected would expect him to have a big impact against Chile. 6

5. David Ribbans: In the end it felt wrong to have no England players. Well, that and it was my last position to choose and budgetary restriction limited choices. That being said, I rate Ribbans highly and if selected I’m optimistic that he will do a good job. 5.5

6. Anthony Jelonch: A fantastic player returning from injury. Playing at number 8 this week in place of the incredible Aldritt, hopefully he comes in well rested and recovered and has a stormer! 6.5

7. Dalton Papali'i: A high impact player against the best teams. Great pace and skill around the park. 6.5

8. Duane Vermeulen: What kind of Fantasy team would it be without a Springbok in the pack! High hopes here. 7

9. Grant Williams: A shoe in. Listed as a 9 on the Fantasy App, he is playing on the wing. A gift to get a 4th back 3 player in your team. 7.5

10. Damian McKenzie: A great option for New Zealand. Pace and serious attacking threat. Also gives you the safety of kicking points. I was tempted to go for Lima Sopoaga here but, Damian just edged it for me, but only time will tell. 10

11. Melvyn Jaminet: French try scorer against New Zealand and will add an additional source of kicking points. A team that thrives on counter attacking opportunities one of your back three must be French this week. Difficult to choose between him and Villiere but Jaminet’s kicking gives him the edge for me. 8.5. Captain and 3 x Captain

12. Ulupano Seuteni: An incredible player who plays for La Rochelle, just watch his highlight reel to see why I’ve selected him against Chile. Samoa’s performance against world number 1, Ireland, was nothing short of exceptional and were unlucky not to take the game. I’m optimistic that if selected he will have a good game, if you want to see why have a look at this video here. 6.5

13. David Havili: Excited to see him play, not the best game to test him but looking forward to seeing how he goes. 6.5

14. Rio Dyer: The most cost effective of the Welsh wingers but don’t let that deceive you, an excellent player with incredible pace and a high strike rate in this early stage of his career, highly optimistic about his chances. An argument could be made for Halfpenny given his kicking as well, but I think this is a week for try scoring (well a round in honesty). 6.5

15. Canan Moodie: An extremely exciting player for South Africa, we saw his prowess in the Boks triumph at Twickenham over New Zealand. I can’t wait to see what he does this week! 7.5

We love hearing from you, so let us know if you agree or think we’re mad, we’ll happily talk fantasy with you all day! As always thanks for your support, and if you like what we’re doing subscribe here and follow us on any of our social channels which you can find on the links on our page.

DTR