So round 1 is in the books, and whilst we’ll update our transfer suggestions later this week, here’s some initial first thoughts from the weekend and what it means for Fantasy Managers:
- Same old Crusaders. New year, but it doesn’t look like the Crusaders have missed a step. You MUST have at least one OBK / Centre from the ‘saders. Challenge will be their rotation and simply how many good players they’ve got.
- Front & Second Row Points. I’d forgotten just how low scoring some of these positions are. Hopefully you’ve picked season long players here, as you don’t want to waste transfers. If you haven’t make that adjustment immediately. These are generally low value positions, just try to have players who have a chance of getting run metres.
- Hurricanes. We total sh*t, and would have burnt many a fantasy manager – the likes of TJ, Lam, Laumape combining for not even 10 points. When Beauden was out last year, they struggled with the 10 jersery and getting any momentum in that backline. It was the same again at the weekend, and without the sparks of Ardie and Coles (expected back week 3/4), they have nothing going. I’m worried, and we all should, because they typically provide a decent stock of players.
- Aussie Teams. I always struggle to get a gauge on the Aussie teams, but there’s some points to be had there, just be careful this early on. I’m going to reserve judgement on how good, bad they are until we’ve got some games under our belts.
- SA Teams. Hard to get too excited about them. The Lions looked about what I thought of them, not great, without that many decent fantasy plays. Steer clear. The Sharks and Bulls are going to be match-up dependent. Stormers are always worth a gamble at home, and we saw that this week. Hershel Jantjies is probably a must in your team from the way he’s started playing.
- Bargain Bucket. There are a LOT of very cheap players, who had big gameweeks. Players prices don’t change until they’ve played a minimum 3 games, so you don’t have to immediately jump on the bandwagon, but draw up a short list of the priority players at or below $70k that you want to work into your team. You’ll want the salary bump in week 4 to give you options.
- Unlimited Subs. If you looked at the rules you would have seen that you can make unlimited transfers up until each lockout. We posted about this, but what it should have mean is your bench was full of players from the early games – chiefs, blues, rebels – where you could see if they got decent points before having to make final selections. There were plenty of points to be had, so you could gamble on a Sotutu, Kellaway etc … without much downside risk.
- #SuperRugbyScout Group – congrats on the top 10 for week 1, with Dom banging in 546 points.
Super Rugby Scout 