What's your Fantasy...Rugby Team!

Hello #DreamTeam,

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks here at DTR, with getting some boring financial elements sorted, beginning the design process and most imminently the release of the Rugby World Cup’s fantasy game, which, between that and the six nations fantasy game should keep your Fantasy rugby needs met until we launch for the 2024 premiership season.

That brings us nicely to the topic of today’s blog. We’re going to be looking at the Fantasy Rugby game itself as well as a first instalment of a series where we will take you through our thoughts for each round of the tournament.

The Game

Fantasy Rugby Geek does a really good explanation here, but in a nutshell the game is a salary capped fantasy game, allowing you to select your ideal 15 players from across the Rugby World Cup for each of the 8 rounds (5 pool stage rounds and 3 knockout rounds) of the tournament. Importantly you can change your team each round, with a rolling lockout, effectively meaning that you can change your selection at any point up until a given player’s team has begun their match that round at which point your selection is locked. Each team begins with 100 credits to be spent across their 15.

There are also a few boosters to be used. The captain booster, which will be familiar to those of you who have played the Six Nations Fantasy game, doubles the selected players points for that round and can be used and changed each round. The other boosters are the “Defensive King”, “Triple Captain” and “Super Kicker”. These can only be used one at a time and once each during the 5 pool rounds and once each again during the knockout stages so use them wisely!

1. Defensive King: Doubles points awarded for the below defensive scoring metrics (Note that it also doubles the negative scoring metric of missed tackles which we’ll dive into later)

a. Turnover forced

b. Interception

c. Tackle Made

d. Tackle Missed (Negative)

2. Triple Captain: Quite Simple, Your captain scores triple points instead of the usual double

3. Super Kicker: Scores double points for the following kick based scoring metrics (Note again doubles negative scoring metrics)

a. Conversion Scored

b. Conversion Missed

c. Penalty Scored

d. Penalty Missed

e. Drop Goal Scored

f. Drop Goal Missed

Scoring in RWC Fantasy Rugby

This is where those of you familiar with the Six Nations Fantasy game will notice the biggest change. There are some significant omissions and perhaps more importantly some really big additions, notably the introduction of negative scoring. Basically, a player can lose points for negative actions beyond just a yellow or red card. Missing a kick or a tackle loses a player 1 point respectively, make a lineout error and lose 2 points (although interestingly it doesn’t specify who loses the point, the jumper or the thrower if anyone has any more insight, please let us know in the comments.). This is a topic Ni and I have battled with for a while now. Personally, I like negative points for things like knock ons and missed tackles and maybe penalties conceded. I think it adds an element of realism to the game and gives a truer reflection of the players contribution. Ni however thinks that it isn’t that simple. For example, the 9 throws a pass at the 10s feet, which he/she drops, therefore knocking on the ball but that’s not really their fault…making the stats quite messy and up for significant debate. Let us know what you think in the comments or tweet us @DreamTeamRugby to let us know.

What we both do agree on is that some of the negative scores in this game are a bit excessive. I’m looking in particular at the -1 points for missing a penalty, conversion or drop goal. While I can see the logic, I feel the negative here is that the player, and therefore you & I, don’t get the 2 or 3 points respectively for the kick and by introducing the -1 point you’re effectively creating a double negative, South Africa and Australia fans beware! I also preferred the Six Nations mechanism of rewarding time on the pitch, whereby a player was given .1 points for every complete minute played provided they won. If they lost, no points for just playing. In the RWC game a player gets 1 point for playing between 1 and 60 minutes and 2 points for 61+ minutes, not a massive change but I liked that under the six nations rules a player was rewarded for winning and it was fluid based on the length of time played. Also, significantly the 50/22 is not a scoring metric in this game which under the six nations won you 15 points, the same amount as a try and also no reward for being named PoM. Personally, I liked these metrics as the 50/22 is a significant attacking weapon for those who can execute it and the PoM award recognises a player for an outstanding performance even if they weren’t running in the trys.

Action	Points
Playing 1 - 60 Minutes	1
Playing 61+ Minutes	2
Try	15
Try Assit	9
Conversion	2
Missed Conversion	-1
Penalty Goal	3
Missed Penalty	-1
Drop Goal	3
Missed Drop Goal	-1
Yellow Card	-5
Red Card	-10
Turnover Forced	4
Interception	5
Lineout Won on Own Throw	1
Lineout Steal on Opposition Throw	5
Lineout Error	-2
Tackle	1
Tackle Missed	-1
Defender Beaten	2
Offload	2
Line Break	7
Line Break Assist	5
10 Metres Gained	1
Penalty Conceded	-1
Error (Knock on or Forward Pass)	-1
Scrum Won (Awarded to the Front Row)	3

One final point on scoring is something we plan on doing (along with a quite a few other things) that no games I’ve seen so far do, reward metres after contact. All games I have seen award points for metres carried but I would suggest awarding double points for metres after contact as this is where it really matters in getting your team front foot ball. Overall, a more extensive scoring matrix than the six nations, which gives points to some of the more specialist positions like Props and second row, but definitely some adjustments that I would make.

Tactics

So, we come to the interesting bit! While you would be forgiven for wanting to fill your team with the superstars of the rugby world, if Antoine Dupont got paid for each person who picked him he would be a VERY wealthy man, I would propose that this is not always the smartest move or even viable within your 100 credits. The way that Fantasy is set up is it doesn’t necessarily reward a player for being the best but for carrying out a series of actions without taking account of the opposition that they face. Take for example Round 1 with the below games;

· France v New Zealand

· Italy v Namibia

· Ireland v Romania

· Australia v Georgia

· England v Argentina

· Japan v Chile

· South Africa v Scotland

· Wales v Fiji

While Antoine Dupont is an excellent 9 and will no doubt influence that game heavily, the opposition will limit his ability to act and therefore limit his ability to score you all important points. Similarly for Malcolm Marx for SA, one of the best if not the best hooker in the world, but he’s up against Scotland and therefore unlikely to be able to have as much effect as even a less capable Hooker against comparatively weaker opposition. Therefore, what you are looking for is not necessarily excellent players but mismatches, which the pool rounds provide plenty of. In this round the closest games are France (3rd in world rankings for all that’s worth) v New Zealand (4th), Australia (9th) v Georgia (11th) and England (8th) v Argentina (6th) followed closely by Fiji (7th) v Wales (10th) and South Africa (2nd) v Scotland (5th). The big mismatches then are Italy (13th) v Namibia (21st), Ireland (1st) v Romania (19th), and Japan (14th) v Chile (22nd).

Given that you can only select 3 players from each country, I would be loading my team with 9 players from Ireland, Italy and Japan for this round. Much as we all love an underdog, usually we would expect a mismatch this big to result in a fairly high scoring game (trys are still the biggest scoring matrix available) with plenty of opportunities for your players to get you points. The other 6 players are very much down to your own discretion based on your judgement of who is likely to perform. The other benefit of this system is it is highly cost effective. You get considerably more bang for your buck so to speak! This in turn allows you to splash out your remaining credits on those big-ticket players maximising your chance of getting a return!

Putting my Money Where my Mouth is!

So now all that has been said, “Well who would you pick?” I hear you all shout. I’ve outlined my choices below. (This is obviously subject to change depending on who is selected to start and I will almost certainly make at least 10 changes between now and the start of round 1)

1. Uini Antonio (5) (Fra)

2. Shona Horie (5) (Jap)

3. Taniela Tupou (6) (Aus)

4. Will Skelton (7) (Aus)

5. Jack Cornelsen (4) (Jap)

6. Levani Botia (6) (Fij)

7. Rob Valentini (6.5) (Aus)

8. Michael Leitch (5) (Jap)

9. Stephen Varney (5) (Ita)

10. Paolo Garbisi (8.5) (Ita)

11. Mack Hansen (8) (Ire)

12. J. Ignacio Brex (6.5) (Ita)

13. Semi Radrada (10) (Fij)

14. James Lowe (8) (Ire)

15. Hugo Keenan (8) (Ire)

For this round I selected my backline first, going for an all-Irish back three. James Lowe, Mack Hansen and Hugo Keenan are all prolific try scorers and I certainly expect this game to be a high try scoring game so with Ireland being so effective at getting the ball to the wings I’m hoping this pays off big. You could be justified for going for a mix of Italian in the back three and I very nearly did with the likes of Ange Capuozzo, Monty Ioane and Paulo Odogwu to choose from, no one would begrudge you that choice. I personally went with a 9, 10 and 12 given the running threat their centre’s pose and Varney’s love of a snipe I’m optimistic here. Only downside (and it is significant) if Italy play Tomasso Allan at FB he often does the goal kicking which leaves my team without a kicker, this may need adjusting when teams are announced and might see Allan make the team. A back row of Leitch, Valentini and Botia I’m quite happy with. I’m debating giving Botia the Defensive king booster. He’s prolific over the ball and an excellent defender and this is a game that Fiji will be targeting if they are to exit their group so likely to see a big defensive effort potentially making this could be a good game for it. Definitely a gamble at this point in the tournament though! Will Skelton in the second row can be a hugely effective player and I can see him doing some damage against Georgia. By the time you start getting to the end you are almost always playing to your budget, and I certainly found myself in this position. My lock and hooker make up my remaining 2 Japanese places with Uini Antonio and Taniela Tupou making up the remainder of my front row. An Aussie front row choice is dangerous against Georgia but they performed well against the French scrum on Sunday, so I remain optimistic!

And so, we come to the end of this instalment. I hope you’ve found it entertaining or useful and ideally both. Look forward to a review of the week after the first round and maybe some thoughts from Ni on his own take on the upcoming round 1. We also have a league in the game under the name Dream Team Rugby (league code O0UT1DVE) if you’d like to play along with us and take us on! Thanks to the more than 1000 of you who have already joined up, it promises to be an exciting few months!

Thanks again!

Chris