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Season 3 Premiere- Premiership Preview
31 Plays5 years ago
We are back! Did you miss us? Oh come on we weren't gone that long after all.
Yes it is the Season 3 debut of TFRY and we are happy to be back in the saddle. In this episode we are talking all Premiership all day. We go down team by team and pick out some key players that will make or break their club's seasons, have our crack at who will finish top 4 and who will get relegated (assuming there still is relegation).
Of course we talk about fantasy for this season! We discuss the good gets and the guys you need to avoid in The Rugby Magazine format, including who from the newcomers, Newcastle, you should include. We also, discuss Fantasy Rugby Draft ranks, positions & players to target early and late, and those odd handcuff pairing that you'll wanna aim for.
Finally, we pick the order for this Saturday's Champi-Yanks League draft in FRD Premiership, which also ends up setting the divisions.
Tune in for a bit of fun and much banter in the return of TFRY!
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar. Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com.
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Transcript
Introduction and Season Kickoff
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Fancy Rugby Yanks. This episode was a little bit funny with the audio still sorting out our new setup over here. So there's a bit of echo. So I apologize for the pain your ears are about to experience. But if you can bear through that, we did have a lot on this episode. So welcome into the new season and enjoy.
Personal Updates and Safety Assurances
00:00:30
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back. It is the Fizzy Robby Inc. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. We've been away for all of, what, two weeks. I felt like the longest off-season. We were very rested, ready to go again. Yeah, everybody took a two-week holiday and now we're back. We were talking with obviously our friend George and it was like...
00:00:49
Speaker
There's no break. But yeah, so it's been pretty intense two weeks for me because obviously I moved house. Yeah. Well, you're acting been just a new abode of yours. It must have been nice for you to not have to drive 45 minutes. Before you even knew I'm driving in here, it's great.
00:01:07
Speaker
Yeah, before anybody freaks out, Ben and I have already had this talk both with each other and with our wives. We're comfortable with where we're at. Yeah. And they are too. Like, this is not, we know Ben and I, Ben and I both know we're not stupid. So. We're all taking precautions here. Yeah. And so, yeah. And Jared and I are brothers and. Yeah, we might as well be family. We're going to trust each other on this one because we can trust each other pretty much anywhere. Yes. This is a. I sniffed your bum enough times.
00:01:40
Speaker
You're gonna have to do my legs a couple times. Yeah, just a minute. He's been my second row before. Yeah, so, um, so yeah, we are, you know, we, we understand people might be having a little bit of a freak out if this is, you know, if Ben and I want to bring, you know, our families, what limited context we've had with them into our, each other's bubble. I think everybody is on board. It's not a big deal. You know, we've talked it all out and we're all in agreement that we're all responsible.
00:02:08
Speaker
Especially when it comes to this we're all not being fucking stupid about
Community Engagement and TRM Upgrades
00:02:12
Speaker
it. So right so That's so much easier to do this in person. It is it is especially being this close. So right. It's a ton easier All right, let's um, let's drink hell yeah, do you remember how I pour this in a glass now no
00:02:32
Speaker
As always, find us on your favorite podcast apps. Give us a rating. Give us a review. We don't care what it is. We just want to know what you think. That's all.
00:02:47
Speaker
If you haven't, get your TRM upgrades. It's new season. Let's go.
Mental Health and Social Movements
00:02:51
Speaker
I do know that TRM is working with RPA. They're going to give 50% of upgrades to restart rugby. Nice. So that's a big thing. And we talked about it before because obviously, Premiership has restart weekend.
00:03:09
Speaker
players mental health is a huge thing that we've talked about a lot in this. So that's good on the rugby mag and the boys to to do that because these guys always need to be looked after after they're done. Yep. So big time. And even now, I mean, this can't be, you know, everyone's mental health these days is. Oh, goodness. Well, Haskell was Haskell was banging the drum for gyms to stay open because of the mental health over while while the UK is in lockdown. Yeah. And that's not there's, you know,
00:03:39
Speaker
So but either way, you know everybody everybody needs a little bit of looking after right now. Oh, yeah, just the same But yeah, so that's a it's a good thing for everybody so yeah get on those boys Fancy rugby geek our friend buy him a damn coffee He was nice enough to give us a shout on the FRD pod along with our old friend Sam. So that was cool and
00:04:06
Speaker
Yeah, but they had him on their first episode of the season. So that should tell you a lot about what you need to know. And George is a legend in his own right. So go give the man some help. This is a one-man crusade to bring fantasy rugby to the people. And we're fully behind him and with him.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, he's pulling us along. He's pulling us right along. But yeah, so give that man. I can't wait to draft with him this weekend. Yeah, it's gonna be so much fun. We'll do that later on in this episode.
00:04:44
Speaker
You know black lives matter and it's not it's not a political movement. It's a it's a it's this is a this is something beyond that so I saw something talking about, you know, is it a political movement? There's a social movement. I'm like, it's a social movement. Everything is political. I mean, yes, but like every everything social needs to be Unfortunately politicized or else things don't change. This is true. I Don't disagree. It would be great if it didn't have to be that way if we could all just agree Hey, this is wrong. Let's just agree to fix it, but it doesn't work that way. I
00:05:13
Speaker
No, I totally agree. Yeah, so let's just get that fixed, guys. Come on. What else did we get? Episode 100 coming up for us.
00:05:26
Speaker
This is currently 89, correct? Something to that effect. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I mean,
Premiership Rugby Season Preview
00:05:32
Speaker
cause we're, you know, we split some episodes into two parts. So it'll listed on the podcast thing, you know, as, I don't know, one 10 or something like that. But in terms of us sitting down, talking about just rugby and not doing the live draft or anything like that, this is, this is one, this will be 100 this year. It's going to be in a few weeks or a few months rather, even if we're doing this once a week, my math sucks. Um,
00:05:56
Speaker
And we're gonna try to make something fun out of it. Yeah, didn't expect to go 100. Never, I mean didn't think about it. No, didn't even consider 100. It was like, yeah, let's just see what happens. But yeah, it'll be fun. I know James is on board. I know George is on board. We're gonna do something different. We're not gonna do the same thing. We're gonna make it, you know,
00:06:21
Speaker
So maybe some live answers, some questions, maybe we'll have our better house pass through the shit out of us with questions about it and stuff like that. I don't know. But we'll do something different. If anybody has an idea, feel free to shoot us. There's no such thing as a bad idea. No problem. The crowd's roasting this thing. Yeah. So yeah, it'll be fun. It'll be later on this season.
00:06:45
Speaker
What's going to premiere ship? This is the this is why we're here, right? This is why we are here. Yeah. Yeah. So we are going to try and keep this mostly to prem. We're not going to. There's a lot we could talk about. Right. We know how much we can talk. Yeah. And we unfortunately can't see the the super rugby that's going on right now in South Africa. No access to it, unfortunately. No. I'm not even sure we have access to the internationals. Yeah. Flow has them.
00:07:15
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah, flow hasn't 99% sure that Amazon was streaming them, but I think that might just be overseas. Yeah, that could be a possibility. I'd be I don't know. I have mixed feelings about whether or not I would want them to have it. But yeah, yeah, that's a true different day.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, so let's we'll talk actual premiership and then we'll talk of course with a fancy where beings will talk fancy later on and then we'll The champion actually we have we have a fully and it's gonna be a fucking blast already. I can tell Seems like everybody's excited for it. So this is gonna be a lot of fun Let's talk about season preview
00:07:55
Speaker
I want to hit on each team quickly. I don't want to dive into it too hard. Just as we were saying, for us, it hasn't been that long. For a lot of these teams, this is going to be a very interesting kind of experiment. Teams are going to get worn out quick. Well, they're going to get worn out quick, but there's a lot of momentum involved. For some teams, I can imagine, say Exeter, who did the double,
00:08:21
Speaker
How are we going to start slow? Yeah, they may. Just because of that. They might. But they could also just fucking roll this straight through. Right. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see who keeps that momentum that they finished the season. Like Northampton tanked. Oh goodness. Goodness did they ever. So what do they do? Do they turn around or are they still?
00:08:44
Speaker
on that one-way track towards the train. Yeah, that was a hell of a train wreck, all right. And Gloucester was low. They were in at the bottom four until they turned around. They came in with quite the skid there. Obviously Bristol finished on the up.
00:09:01
Speaker
Um, sale had an ugly ending bath had a fairly good ending for the, for the most part. And then obviously you have, and wasps all the, all three of them. Yeah. Yeah. They ballooned big time. And it'll be interesting that that Sunday matchup will be very interesting. Um, that much I know. Um, but, uh, let's, yeah, so let's kind of, we'll go through it. Um, can I go through alphabetically that way? We're not trying to be too, too, um,
00:09:29
Speaker
Too picky here. Let's talk about Beth. A little bit. Key player. For them. Oh, Ben Spencer. Yeah. Absolutely. I think that's without batting an eye. Yeah, really is. I mean, you put me on the spot with that. That pretty much answered right away. Right. Yeah. Especially where he's not away. Right. That's huge for them. It is. And Priestlin, obviously, is just going to do his normal thing, and that's great for them.
00:09:56
Speaker
Yeah, and for me, the guy that got hot, and he's probably the guy that, the second seat, we're in McConaughey. Oh, yeah. Super hot. He got extremely hot, smoking at the end of the season, so that's huge. What I am interested to see is, I guess it's still going to be Josh Medivacy as their backup fly half. It could be, you know, it could be Redpath.
00:10:20
Speaker
could be Red Path. I liked him. I liked what he saw of him. Why sell him? He was another guy. They essentially let him go for Sam James. Or not Sam James. Sam Hill. Said Johnny Hill's brother. Easy trade there. I like what I see out of Red Path more than I like what I see out of Sam Hill. Red Path, the way he played for Beth was so very different from how he played for sale.
00:10:47
Speaker
I think that's a good call there. Yeah, so I like Tim. Can they better their finish? I don't know. It's gonna be tough. If they had Mercer.
00:11:00
Speaker
that things might have been different. He kind of, he got hurt towards the end of the season. That was the mystery that we were all like, where the fuck is Zach Mercer? That was the question answered. But they've got a lot of just talent in that, in that pack. That tight five is just on.
00:11:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they're missing a few of them right now, but even their backups are quality between Boyce and Judge. Yeah. You know, Jack Walker's pretty good himself as well, and Ross Batty's in there as well. So, pretty good there. Bristol, I mean, really, it's hard to say that they could go a whole lot further up, but they can.
00:11:45
Speaker
You know, I mean, they're going to be missing some key players to start because the bottom, Rob Rogers out, Mayons is out, Earl is out, Sheedy's out. So they're going to need somebody to step in. But but I feel like the the the Pietals, Charles Pietal, he got hurt towards the end of the season. If he steps back in, I mean, they were they were going fine with him. I feel like the key here and this is the key to Bristol to me.
00:12:15
Speaker
It's going to be odd, I think, at first, Blush, but Piers O'Connor. His game has elevated so much since Rod Rodger came around, and he's been excellent at running off of it. If I remember correctly, I'm not looking at my notes on this one, but I seem to recall O'Connor playing well in matches where Rod Rodger didn't play better than he had played in the past.
00:12:44
Speaker
Rod Rodra has shown a lot of the young players on Bristol how to run off of talent. And no doubt, Piers O'Connor has talent. Absolutely. I think he can slot into that Rod Rodra role when he's not around. And obviously not as well, but that's not fair. It's tough to say it. He's still an excellent player.
00:13:11
Speaker
And if he can fill in, if he can slot in there, then you still, the, the both Pietals lay you came on strong more and it's still a threat. They have, they have guys, even without their top guys, their second guys are pretty good. It's just, they got to get them.
00:13:25
Speaker
Just like any club, you know, if your backups start playing well and you have that depth. Yeah, it's tough. It's a scary sight when it happens. Let's go to the doubles, the double boys, Exeter. You know, they are missing some bodies.
00:13:41
Speaker
But really, to say that... Not the Simmonses. Yeah, no, they don't miss the... I don't know. It's the curse of the European Player of the Year, it seems like. Because every time an English player wins it, Eddie Jones just looks the other way. And is like, okay, you do you, man, that's not my job. But still seems a little bit backwards. It does. So yeah, they have Simmonses, I suppose. There's no reason to panic if I were them. No.
00:14:07
Speaker
You know, yeah, they're gonna be missing the Johnnys, but even their backup locks, I mean, and they can pull people in, like, even Vermullen can be pulled in, and Sam Skinner, who can remove all around the pitch, like a flank even from the lock position. So they have guys, it's just how they want to play. I think the question mark for me to Exeter is more their style of play. If they can continue to maintain this, like, brutal style of play,
00:14:35
Speaker
from a restart and then only get a few weeks off and then do it again. Because that can take a toll on you. It takes a toll on you. I agree. So this is an extended season for that kind of play. So I could see them potentially starting slow just because of the long previous season and then ending poorly because...
00:15:12
Speaker
was going to the boys at King's Home, Gloucester, you know, everybody's darlings for a long time and just dipped hard last year. They really did. Ollie Thorley lit up the universe as he does, but that's... And Louis re-zam it lit him up, too. And I did like what the two guys in the center were doing, but, and Poledri obviously played his ass off, but...
00:15:19
Speaker
of how they beat the shit out of themselves for literally 12 months straight.
00:15:34
Speaker
Other than, like, that is like five or six guys, but really those are the most notable guys by a long shot. Yeah. I mean, they need low playing better. Ben Morgan to play a lot better than he did less. Well, he needs to be healthy. Well, that too. But even when he was playing, he wasn't... Yeah. But they have decent players, so they really don't have much of an excuse now.
00:15:59
Speaker
you know, Cipriani hopefully can get loose again, show his good form, and really, I think that's it. That's going to be the key. If Cipriani can...
00:16:10
Speaker
You know, love the guy if he can shake his head up his ass. I mean, he is definitely their key. He makes that team go. Like Lloyd Evans surpassed him last year. And if that's happening, good for Lloyd Evans, but bad for Gloucester. Right. That's not Lloyd Evans playing well. That's Cipriani dipping more. And that's no disrespect to Lloyd Evans. They did add.
00:16:32
Speaker
They did add this offseason just recently, Jamie Gibson. Jamie Gibson is going to make it a jump. That's a big ad. That's a real big ad. That's a good one for them. Boy, let's go to the stoop, Chris Sharpshaw's former team and now he's going to watch games, so it will be really weird for him. We talked about Stephen Lewis getting named captain this week.
00:16:56
Speaker
You know, a healthy Marcus Smith makes him go, as far as I'm concerned. Don Brandt did not get, you know, make the final squad for Eddie, so, which still, again, another one that just kind of makes you scratch your head, but it is what it is. Eddie has his ways.
00:17:12
Speaker
So yeah, they they aren't suffering super badly by any means whatsoever in their pack right now or in their back, you know, they have a couple guys missing and their center pairing could be and good luck getting through the middle here with CK and Esther Hazen with March and on the outside March on so I think I think he's away.
Team Updates and Challenges
00:17:32
Speaker
Oh Okay, I think you made the final cut but either way. Okay, either way like that
00:17:38
Speaker
I don't want any business in that middle. You can stick him on the wing completely. He's obviously shown he could do it. He's played there this year when he came back.
00:17:58
Speaker
So it'll be very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing what he brings to the table again. Yeah. And about Esterhuysen coming in. Esterhuysen. Yeah, I mean, he didn't quite make the impact they needed him to last because he had a few issues coming through the quarantine process, but oh well. Tyrone Green, I think, is going to be a good addition now that he's ready to go as well. So we'll see how the boys at the stoop do.
00:18:19
Speaker
To everybody's not so not so favorite, but they're making some smartish moves. We'll see Lester I mean They know if the Saracens hadn't had the issues that they had last year They would have been relegated and they and you better believe that Borthwick has firing rockets up bums It's still the you can fire back your rockets up bums all you want but if those bums are only gonna go so high as it is
00:18:49
Speaker
It's not gonna be helpful, but I do appreciate the fact that he has brought in Bonilla from Argentina. Quality player. Quality player, especially in that position. That should be a warning shot off of George Ford's bow. We'll take this guy, we'll take this actual quality international player for now as your backup. Yeah, and that's definitely a message.
00:19:18
Speaker
Don't screw up, man. If you slip, you have somebody to take your place very easily. And the same thing with Ben Young. And I didn't think about this until just sitting down here talking about it.
00:19:29
Speaker
This is where you're gonna see accountability. If Ben Young slips, as he has, they got Wigglesworth, and Wigglesworth can do it. It's one of those like, you know, I remember one of my first years playing here in Boston when I made the jump up to multiple divisions to come play here. In a B-side game, one of the old coaches came up to me, Anthony. So I went in at halftime of a match and said, Ben,
00:19:57
Speaker
If you don't move your ass out there, I'm going to have to put on a jersey and play." He's like, we're fucking pulling you, whatever. He wasn't exactly retired at the time, but he was helping coach and play a little bit, but he didn't want to play that game. So it was my job to make sure he didn't, and I wasn't doing my job.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah, so don't not do your job when you have quality backups in your rearview there. Right. Youngs and Ford got to wash their ass. Great.
00:20:29
Speaker
Boys at the new stadium in Brentford, London Irish, back home in London for a full season now. They've already had a few injuries up the middle. Billy Meeks has been called in for a short-term deal from Australia, so that'll be fairly quality signing right there. They are going to be missing a few internationals. Blair Cowan's going to be away.
00:20:55
Speaker
Still, they've finished well enough because Creepy's given them some sort of punch in the pack. This is not the pushover that everybody thought they would be at the least. Agreed. And they won't be again. So don't sleep on these guys. They will get it done. They had a lot of young guys. They still have a lot of young guys. You look up there who are contributing well, like Ollie Hoskins, a young kid who's- Ollie Hoskins, you mean?
00:21:24
Speaker
Isn't Huskins the prop? Oh, I don't think he's that young. Oh, okay. I don't think he's that young. Then maybe. Former Australian. Maybe it was because I didn't know him because he was an Australian. Yeah, maybe that's why. Just the same. Yeah, he's 20, 27. He's not old. Not old, but not, yeah. Not as young as I thought, but yeah, like, um, then where was he going? Uh, George Knott. Um, I like him. And, and, uh, Danelle. Yeah, Ben Danelle. Yep. Um,
00:21:52
Speaker
And then, as you said, Ollie Hassell Collins, they have these key young players at certain positions who were showing up for them. Ben Lowder's still pretty good last time I checked, and he's only 22. Yeah, they do have some young talent coming through along with mixing in with some salty veterans like Cowan when he comes back from international media. Sam O'Brien when he comes back? Yeah, yeah, assuming O'Brien actually becomes healthy.
00:22:18
Speaker
so on and so forth. So yeah, just definitely not a team to just, yeah, don't, don't just ship them off and say, Oh, they're nobody. Not a good idea. Uh, the new guys, Newcastle, um, some interesting signings for them. Um, they're gonna, and they're going to get some players, um, that they obviously loaned out. Mark Wilson's coming back. Uh, Lago is back from what I understand. Um,
00:22:45
Speaker
And they still have some decent quality players on top of that, so it'd be very interesting. They brought in Matias Orlando, which would be very good for them. I really liked him when he was playing with the High Guarres, so there's that.
00:23:03
Speaker
They had some guys that they could bring along while they were down in the championship and they did it well. And then they still had some tough nuts to crack, like Gary Graham and John Hardy, the two flankers. Those are tough boys to be going against, so don't just be passing them off by any means whatsoever. And then, of course, our boy Greg Peterson is on this team as well. Go, Greg. Exactly. I'm a little nervous about their 9-10 combination.
00:23:30
Speaker
That's really the biggest weak point that I can see. I think Schroeder is going to end up being the starting nine, the former Sharks man. Obviously not the Sharks in this league, the other Sharks. I think he's going to end up being the starting nine. I don't like Mickey Young that much and I will forever call him Mickey Young. I don't care if he wants to call him Michael, sorry.
00:23:50
Speaker
You tried to make that change way too late in your career, buddy. If you want to recall Michael, by the time you hit 21, 22, you should have said it. Not when you were 30. Right. You're Mickey now. You're still Mickey. Sorry, dude. That's the way it works. So this is not a done and dusted relegated team. So anybody that thinks that, do not throw that in there. Just FYI. Keep your eyes filled. And then Northampton.
00:24:19
Speaker
Yeah, we talked about it with Gloucester and they're in the same boat just kind of crash and burn. They went down at the end of the season though. At least Gloucester kind of moved themselves back up a little bit. The Saints just... Was not good. Crash. Was not good. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see how they recover.
00:24:47
Speaker
Great. Especially early in the season when their stars are away. Yeah, and when the losses hurt as well. Yeah. So consider that. Hotches hurt from what I understand.
00:24:59
Speaker
ankle injury, the heat picked up, so it's gonna be, yeah, it's gonna be tough for them to start. They're gonna need the guys that showed up here once in a while to show up very consistently in the first four or five weeks here. Right. Danny Nair Voro would not be a paperweight up there. He's got to come back and be what he was two years ago. I agree. And a difference maker. You're not gonna get any argument out of me whatsoever.
00:25:25
Speaker
And then we got...
00:25:29
Speaker
Team that really ended the year with a whole lot of egg on their face. Sail sharks. It's just a whole lot of egg on that grill. I don't see it getting much better though. Like Tuolagi is going to be still out for a while. Yes. And even when he comes back, how effective is he going to be ahead? I don't know. Until the 2021 to 2022 season. This could be just a complete lost year for Manu. And that's a shame. It is. But Achilles injuries are no joke. No, they're not.
00:25:59
Speaker
I mean, they take that there's just natural recovery that only so much you can do about it. Yeah, it takes a bit. But they were banking on him to be some because of now, you know, the James brothers are felt doing a pinch. Our JVR is he actually had a couple of good, good games at the end of the year. So I'll give him that. But other than that, he was just wasn't overly impressive. John Ross is only aging more.
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah, and that's really unfortunate. Akbar van der Merver still can't hit a fucking line out to save his life. So he's got, unless that's gotten fixed. Yeah. You don't, yeah, they'll bully you and they'll probably do some, they'll probably win in the ugly fashion that they've won in. Right. But it's only going to get you so far. Mm-hmm. Agreed. Yeah. I mean, we, they were out of position, which is why they got eliminated from the playoff because they did not, they, they could not sustain their style of play. Mm-hmm. You know?
00:26:55
Speaker
Beaumont is coming back as far as I understand. He should be near healthy if not, if not, um, yeah, pretty far a year away from his injury over a year away from his injury. So hopefully that means he's, he's ready to go. So, um, I like him a lot and I really hope he's, he's ready to rock cause I thought he was a huge loss on their part for when he got hurt. Yeah. And it would be fun to see some lewd again. Yeah. Shoulder injury. Hopefully it's all healed up. Yeah. Um,
00:27:23
Speaker
Let's go to the second place. The runner's up last year. Just took the whole world by storm, the loss. They'll be missing some guys as well. Roland's is out. Jack Willis rightfully got called up if he, you know, we talk about guys that, you know, people are banging the door down for. He was one of them like, I know you don't need.
00:27:45
Speaker
You don't necessarily need this or need that role on a rugby pitch anymore. But god damn, the way he makes people freaking give out the ball, that guy had to go. So if he wasn't there, it would've been a shame. So I'm glad he got the phone call. Jacobo Maga is not going to be there. Manazzi's not going to be there. Yeah, so we'll see how that goes with that. Let's see if Silpwaga can pull his head out of his ass. Yeah, maybe that's the question. Is it Silpwaga or is it Copper? The place tend to start.
00:28:13
Speaker
Yeah, I would put Goprath because, just because he's not as mobile. I mean, he's kind of lost it at 12 anyway, as a, as a runner, so much really, but I think that's why it's like, if you're going to, you know, Sipwaga needs some, he needs to be able to run and he, I don't think he can run and expect Goprath to be in support.
00:28:34
Speaker
from the Unity. To me, that would be the decider there. And here's the fun part. This Wasp team can still put a quality back row together of Shields, Tom Willis, and Tom Young. Yep.
00:28:49
Speaker
That might be there and Alfie Barbary obviously who came on strong at the end of the year Surely gonna make a impact now Algrey also made a very good impact probably a little overshadowed by Barbary But still very quality and very good near the end of the year last year. So I think they'll be I think they'll they may actually come off to a stronger start than the next year I think so wouldn't be sure they finished really pushing through whereas exit or just
00:29:19
Speaker
withered through to the end. I mean, they were just powered through to the end. Yeah, that's all I could do. Yeah. And so I think, yeah, wasps. The other thing is, I think if that experience is so good for those younger players there, like the Willis's, you know, and the Barbaries and O'Grace to get to that level.
00:29:41
Speaker
And see what it's like to play in matches like that, like a championship match. You want to be there. Yeah. And having that experience is going to make them that much more dangerous this year. Because they'll understand. When you realize what you have to do to win at that kind of match, and then you realize the difference of what you have to do to win that kind of match, and what you have to do to win just a normal match against Wooster, you get better at beating those Wooster teams. Yeah, you do. You do. You do.
00:30:10
Speaker
speaking of. I was thinking about Worcester. Yeah, I guess that was it. Yeah, you know, I'm not convinced this team doesn't get really good.
00:30:22
Speaker
Not yet at least. I know they have, they definitely have some great quality in there. That back row is going to be very good between Lewis Hill and Covessica. And then when CDP comes back and if GJ van Vels is healthy and if Marco Momma can spell somebody every once in a while, it is a quality back row, but that can't be, that can't be your team. You know, Ollie, Ollie, Ollie Lawrence.
00:30:42
Speaker
Really put this team on its back for a few games and that's why he's in the England squad and good on him He he's deserved it for a little while now, and I'm glad he's gotten the recognition he deserves They don't have him to start this year. Yeah
00:30:56
Speaker
So that's going to be a problem. And they don't come here to start the year either. Nope. They're missing their general 10. Searle's there and will deputize. But who's Searle's back up? Sheesh. That's a terrifying thought. Good luck. Good luck. Nope.
00:31:18
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if that's going to be enough. We'll see. The kids and our brothers are obviously still there. Hopefully one of them doesn't go and get himself a red card again. They need one of Mould's or Annette to really claim that hooker jersey. That's true. That's what I'm looking for from that front row. Yeah, we'll give you that one for sure.
00:31:40
Speaker
Feel like I was at Ethan Waller's got that one Jersey pretty pretty well sewn up Sure, it's probably the in there three jerseys. Yeah, probably But then on the other end who's yeah. Well, yeah, I don't know who really would be there I mean they had to have the kitcheners like you said moving up up to the back line like Who's their wing? That's gonna be like this that the real
00:32:04
Speaker
I would assume Nana is going to be their full back. And then from there I'm really... Nick David is not terribly oppressive. He had a good end. I'm not saying that he's shite. I'm just saying that he's not. I wasn't like...
00:32:24
Speaker
Now he needs to, if he's, this is his chance, let's put it that way, that's his chance right there. He's got some, he's got some guy, he's got some guys gone, he can step in and really make a difference for this Wooster team. And whether or not he does is up to him, because that is a chance for him to, you know,
00:32:42
Speaker
be on somebody's radar for international rugby as well. This is one of those times, you know, things like this that pop up where you have a lot of guys away, you know, well, a couple years are usually one of them, and then, you know, this special year, obviously, is where it is. This is it. So, whether or not he can get Ashley back probably wants to get back in the Wales squad, even though he's aging, but, you know, it's not like he doesn't want to get back to it. So, you know, here's your opportunity, guys. Step in.
00:33:11
Speaker
you know, don't let your team get sunk. Because that's going to become, you know, these what, six weeks that we're going to be screwing around with the automations, you know. That's a lot of time. That can sink you. You cannot win the league in that time, but you sure as shit can come damn near close to relegated by that time, if you, if you let go. So it'll be very interesting. Top four, top six. Hi, Senator.
00:33:40
Speaker
Exeter yeah, they'll be in the top four. I can't you can't not pick up Yeah, I mean they might not finish number one. So I was thinking about this and I think for them I'm gonna Kind of equate this to Saris What was it? I think 2014 to 2015 and that that's probably a bad
00:34:01
Speaker
Uh, example, because they did end up, they weren't, they didn't end up as champions of the, of the premiership, but they, they ended up, they only had 68 points on the year. Was that the end of the human fourth? Yeah. Yeah. I remember that year. And they didn't really deserve to make it, but they did. And then they upset Satan. I remember that match quite well. So kind of all fell into place for them, but that team was just so
00:34:22
Speaker
Fucking annoying to watch because they were just mmm. They should have been so much better They retired but because they were tired because they were running they they lost they lost the double Yeah, they lost both finals and they and they had a bunch of guys play in the World Cup So so exit er, yeah, probably top four, but probably not towards the top. Yeah them Bristol Bristol, yeah wasps wasps definitely then who's the fourth?
00:34:50
Speaker
Is it the same four or? No, it's not going to be. Well, that's the thing. So, again, because of the way the season ended in such a way that like. I think you're going to see some momentum that way, and I think sale are going to struggle a little bit. I think it's kind of the same reason and exit are because they're playing style and they didn't get enough of a break. And they had guys with Covid gather them up.
00:35:17
Speaker
Quinn's and Gloucester, I think, are candidates of the two that I think are the ones that I'd pay for. They're on the cusp. Between Quinn's, Gloucester, and Bath, I think, for that fourth spot in the top.
00:35:36
Speaker
As a neutral and not a Saracens fan and did not dislike and quince by programmed, I would like to see Marcus Smith get into a semi-final. So I would like to see that. Let's put it that way. Is there a dark horse in this group that gets to the top four, top six? Irish? No, no. Irish don't have a shot at it.
00:36:05
Speaker
They're not going to double their point total. The darkest horse I can see having a shot is Saints. Because they're actually not that bad. They just fucking fell apart. And maybe this is a chance for them just to hit that reset button and say, yeah, just flush what we just did. We have the players. They're good enough. They just lost their heads. And yeah, they lost their right act.
00:36:34
Speaker
Yeah, that did not help at all. That hurt. You know, they should have been prepared for that better than they were. So hopefully, seeing it and realizing, okay, yeah, we can't rely on Cobas to bail us out of certain situations.
00:36:47
Speaker
or to finish certain situations that, you know, you just kind of take them for granted. Hopefully in these last few weeks, they've had that chance to huddle up and sort their shit out. So to me, they're the ones who have the best shot at being a surprise top 14. There you go. Who's relegated? Lester. Yeah, really hard to say otherwise. It'll be between Lester and Newcastle, so two years ago, all over again.
00:37:16
Speaker
I think Wooster might have a shot at it though. I think that's something not to fuck around with, especially when you're out early.
00:37:28
Speaker
Yeah, Lester, yes, we talked about Youngs and Ford having to look over their shoulders a little bit, but that also means in the six weeks or so that they're going to be out. Fuck, Wiggles and Bonilla are going to be there. Not Ben White, I'm sure, we'll get some playing time to it at nine, but that's going to be their halfback combination. And they've added some guys, you have Maroney, it's a good get. So, and Cobas Van Vic, fuck.
00:37:56
Speaker
Who knows what he's going to do? Yeah, who knows? And Potter has shown ability. Showing a spark, yep, absolutely. And they have some young guys in the forwards, so. Yeah, we'll see. They were a lot of people's favorites going into the offseason to get relegated this year. I'm not sure they've quite done enough. It's going to depend entirely on team culture. And they're playing style.
00:38:26
Speaker
And so we'll see what that looks like. I'm not going to shake from my original thought of them being the favorites. I won't be surprised if it changes though. Yeah.
Fantasy Rugby Tips and Draft Strategies
00:38:37
Speaker
So yeah, that'll be my prediction as well. Okay, let's have some fun.
00:38:43
Speaker
Let's fantasize. Let's start with our friends at the Rugby Mag. So for those of you that are not familiar with this format and may be new to us, welcome. What the fuck you doing here? But welcome anyway. No, we know what the fuck to do. We're learning. So we like to play the Rugby Mag in FRD.
00:39:12
Speaker
Certainly was where we started out making our making our fun. So that's why we kind of look at that first and Usually near the top of our list, but doesn't mean we ignore the other one anyway You get seven million pounds quote-unquote in this you need at least 28 players need to put a lineup of 23 out every week and You only get one transfer a week. That's free. Otherwise you start doing a few points. Oh, did he go to this year? It's always been to
00:39:38
Speaker
It's one, it's been one forever. So you've been losing 20 points. Maybe it's two this year and that would make sense with the shit show that we're about to endure here. But anyway.
00:39:49
Speaker
so it'll be it's fun you pick a kicker you pick a captain captain gets double points and It's it's usually very interesting the players that you think aren't worth a damn are definitely worth something like the hooker and You know the the flight the flakers are definitely worth worth quite a bit and even the the second rose if you have a good jumper in there for like, you know, Louise Chris Vue Johnny Hale before he got called away to England and
00:40:13
Speaker
Those are definitely the second rows to yeah. Oh, yeah, Elliot Stuke to kind of clue into and say yeah, that's the one so we We yeah, we like this You've done yourself quite a quite a bit of homework over there I have I have nerded what's your what's your what's your first list over there? So what I got here is what the way I've gone through this is this there's
00:40:40
Speaker
There's groups. There's must-haves, nice-to-haves, bait, paperweights, and then sleepers. So the must-haves are guys who, if they're not on your team, if you don't have one of these players on your team or multiple, pull your head out of your ass. You got to have them. They better be on your team. You can't have all of them because, again, as Jared mentioned, there's a salary cap. So that kind of comes into play.
00:41:06
Speaker
The nice to haves are guys who, yeah, you should have, again, same thing. You should have a couple of them on your team as backups or starters, regular starters. The bait are the guys who they either seem, they make them attractive, like just close enough that maybe you want to, but they don't actually produce enough points to make it worth what they're asking.
00:41:27
Speaker
Um, yeah, there's a few of those out there too. There's paperweights who either they're really expensive, but they won't get your shit or they're really cheap and they won't get your shit. And they'll just stay there because it's hard to cut a guy who makes under 200 K. And then sign somebody new who's, who's planning. Well, it's so much easier to, you know, especially with the two cuts. Um, and again, you have to maintain 28 on your team.
00:41:53
Speaker
So signing cheap guys who don't give you points? No, not gonna do anything. And then sleepers I have are guys who are new or young or are still extremely cheap. So let's give it for example. So for props. I mentioned him in the
00:42:15
Speaker
in the run-up, but Ollie Hoskins, huge point scorer, a prop, only 216k, so he's the guy you won on your team. Obano and Stewart, you gotta have one of them on your team if you don't know what the fuck you do. And I also mentioned Ethan Waller, excellent player at 211. Almost always starting too, that's the other thing. You gotta remember the guys that are consistently starting, and the good guys that get breaks, but last year it was not fun trying to manage that with the midweek games.
00:42:44
Speaker
What a show that was. And then some nice to haves on that end are Alec Hepburn and Fraser Balmain. And maybe Ross Harrison. He's a little on the expensive side for the points he gives, but sometimes you just need him on your, you've got to have somebody to fill in. Most people had him on the team last year. He didn't perform so well last year though, so hopefully he can pull that up.
00:43:06
Speaker
Bait, guys like Jake Woolmore, where you see his point total and you're like, oh wait, maybe he could be good. But then you realize that a lot of his points are racked up when he's on the bench and you're not going to have him start. And he just kind of is in middling. So he'll get, you know, if he comes on and off the bench, he'll give you 15 points. If he starts, he gives you 15 points. Well, throughout the year, all of a sudden he's a leading point scorer, but you're not going to use him half the time because he's off the bench. Genge 331.
00:43:34
Speaker
Sinclair, same thing at 339. They're bait because they're just not going to get you the points that are worth that investment. And also they're going to be away with anyone for a good chunk of the year. Right. Not as long as having those guys, but still. Lady Gaga, who said 104. Nope, won't give you many points. And then Harry Williams and Simon Carrad, who you'd think are going to be solid point scorers. No, they're better players than they are fantasy players.
00:43:59
Speaker
And the paperweights would be Johnafoa, Boyce, Ravel, Paparuskin, Dan Cole, and Joe Marlar. Dan Cole's price got dropped this year at least. He's down to $2.66, but he's still not worth it. That's way better, but yes, still not worth the investment. And then as a sleeper, Adam Brocklebank is $1.65. Yes, he was so good two years ago for a cheapo. I remember that guy. I would be looking at him again this year.
00:44:22
Speaker
Yeah, I have quite a few Falcons in my, as I've picked them, I'm obviously free to go and drop them all, drop a hat depending on how things go until the first kickoff comes, but I went that direction for sure. How about in the backs?
00:44:41
Speaker
So what do you think? The backs. So let's look at your outside backs, your wings and full backs. Ollie Hassel Collins, some must-haves, Ollie Hassel Collins, Luke Morahan, and again, Piers O'Connor, because he's that, and Sammy Redrada, because they're both wing-center combinations. So they're valuable. And we mentioned it before, but scoring McConaughey, you've got to have him on your team. Yeah, he was very good.
00:45:10
Speaker
And then there's guys who are the fill-ins in that respect, like Ollie Thorley. I mean, he's going to be on your team, but he's also going to be away. Tom O'Flaherty is a 2-12, but scores. Louis Reesam, again, will be away, but he's still only 2-10, and he scores. Ben Loader, Alapati Leilua is a guy who you've got to be thinking about, too. A lot of those guys who are going to be running off of semi road, Roger, are going to get some fucking points. Yeah, never a bad idea.
00:45:40
Speaker
And then Marchant and Malins are both 270, but when they're playing, they'll be worth it. Yeah, that's not bad. That's still not that bad for as quality as they are. And then I got to say, because he's in this format, Charles Piatow is complete bait.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's really tough to it's hard. It's a lot. It's 386 and he scores a lot of points, but but Right, he's so and didn't score that well at the end of the season either. No, he didn't I will say the biggest paperweight in this game Still has got to be told by fellow town. He played he's eligible at one position Any four four and a half like holy shit, and he doesn't score that well, right? Like I
00:46:24
Speaker
Oh my god, that was a lot, like, yeah, 25 points for 80 minutes, but that's a lot of fucking change for that. You can get three players in some instances for that, like, oh my. Yeah, you can get three in my, three in some, yeah, so you can get Brocklebank, Ben Donnell, and like Glenn Young for that.
00:46:45
Speaker
So much in in my advice in this in this format is definitely get yourself like four props because Man, they rotate those guys out so much and you need starting props and it's not always gonna be pretty I have two of the ones that you put on the naughty list right now. I might get rid of them I might get rid of one of them a little more in voice have
00:47:11
Speaker
At least god to say if you have less than three hookers, you're probably asking for it. Honestly. Yeah, because you're really you're really saying Yeah, I think one of these guys will always start and guess what that never works Look if you can find a way to have Harry Thacker
00:47:28
Speaker
Tom Dunne and Akervan Damara on your team. Not terrible. Not terrible. Obviously Dunne, maybe not so much right now. But yeah, those three guys, really the only real reach there is Dunne at 302. Thackeray267 is a steal and his price is only going to go up as it always does. Yeah, and that's the other thing.
00:47:51
Speaker
If you play a low and they balloon, and they won't balloon too much, even the good ones only end up ballooning about 50 or so. Well, Facker, I think, grew 100 last year. And that's the one that a lot of people bought them. That's the other thing. It is like the stock market. You have to know when to get rid of them. Wilcliffe last year was awesome. And then Fafteclaire came back and bottomed out. So if you didn't anticipate that happening, shame on you.
00:48:21
Speaker
Yeah, and you have to find the diamonds and the rough out there. I don't know. I want to say that this year we'll have a darling of the whole thing. We'll see how it goes.
00:48:41
Speaker
I want to say it's going to be a Newcastle player though. Really, because they have some decent signings that they have and there's still a few that don't cost too, too much. I like some of the things they have. I don't love all of them. I definitely think there's going to be some holes, but that means more points for the guys that can bring value.
00:49:05
Speaker
Dan Robson was as good as he was. Dan Robson, Sam Simmons, and Marcus Smith have always been, have been top 10 since you and I have started doing this for the most part. Sam Simmons and Marcus Smith have definitely been in there the whole, for quite a while. You know, Sheedy was always a great option, but now whales know who he is. I was like, shit, there goes that option. But luckily for everybody out there, Joe Simmons is not on Eddie's radar. I don't know why.
00:49:36
Speaker
He will be soon, I am feeling. But for now, he's not. So we'll, we'll write that out. Um, so, and the other thing is diversity matters in your positions. Like you don't want too many guys that are one position only in this format. You need some flexibility.
00:49:56
Speaker
Oh, what do you know? Piers O'Connor is actually full back eligible too. How about that? That's huge. That's a big one. But to your point. Full back is our pain. He has to find too. That's the other thing. Yeah. I hate finding because there's a lot of people that are just full back eligible or like full back center eligible. I'm like, what the? Annoying.
00:50:16
Speaker
Yeah, Ollie Thorley is no longer center eligible. That's an interesting change. Oh, that's a fucking sad move right there. But Joe Simmons is still full back eligible. Yeah, I've seen that. You can run a multi fly half attack. Actually, you can run a lot because if you have a Jacob Umaga, he's also a fly half center full back eligible.
00:50:39
Speaker
Yeah, so he comes back healthy. So and then yeah, and as you go into the forward so they can Alex Dombrandt is a must-have on your team because lock flanker 8 and he's not going anywhere and also not super expensive like 265 for what he brings to the table. Yeah, it's cheap And as you mentioned him a couple times now Chris Vuey at 205 locker and flank and
00:51:05
Speaker
Yeah, all day. All day. Give me that. And then Harry Thacker. Hooker flank. The reason hookers can bring a ton of value is because they get points for completed lineups. And assuming that you have a hooker that can throw the ball worth a damn.
00:51:24
Speaker
You're in good shape. Easy money. That's why Jinx was so good for the longest time. Quality line out thrower. Obviously Tom Dunn's a quality line out thrower and obviously they've started to use the driving mall as a weapon in that team and guess who scores those tries? It's the hookers. Obviously he's away right now but still that's the type of people you're looking for just the same. Jack Yandell will be fairly quality for
00:51:47
Speaker
Okay price not a great price, but I'm not a bad price and he's gonna be playing for a few weeks at the very least of Luke Alan Dickey gets her touch wood Hopefully not for his sake Yeah, he handles the guy. So it'll be very interesting to see how that goes. Yeah, I think um, I Think you should but but you should definitely be looking into Jack Monder from Exeter He's gonna start
00:52:15
Speaker
If nothing else, and he's cheap, he's only 203. So he's the guy who's going to play. He's not a guy to have as a starter, but to have as a reserve. So my Scram house right now are Robson, Maunder, Spencer. There's going to be a week where Robson and Spencer both are
00:52:39
Speaker
are on the pine. There you go, Monder, in case you know he's going to be playing. It gets more difficult when you have something like the Bristol scrum halves. You could probably just grab both of them and have one on, whoever's the starter, whoever's on the bench, because they're going to score.
00:53:01
Speaker
Yeah, and that's another position I would have at least three at is it if you can't yeah for sure, right Yeah, you need probably four props three hookers three scrum has Three fly has yeah, this stuff. Those are the biggest pain the ass ones that you need to find somebody quality yet. Yeah and centers true centers rarely score so you're gonna have to like, you know, if you have a guy who plays mostly at 12 don't fucking sign him because he's not gonna
00:53:30
Speaker
So it's hard to find. It's just hard to find, you know, 12s do not, like maybe Paul Lacyke, because he's just going to power over. He's a bowling ball. Right. But outside of the, and, you know, even, even Tulagi isn't really, he's a, he's a paperweight in this, even when he's healthy. He just doesn't do things that score points. So find, that's why, you know, and Sammy Red Rogers, the, the rare
00:53:52
Speaker
Yeah, but he plays outside center and could play a wing if you wanted to. Exactly. So yeah, you want to have 13s or wings who are center eligible. Like Chris Harris is another guy who's outside center. I really like Chris Harris for a lot of reasons. Yeah. So be careful when you're picking those centers.
00:54:12
Speaker
And then your flankers, and then locks, same thing. Look for flankers who are lock eligible more than locks who are flanker eligible. Unless you're going for the line outs. Because those are one point both ways.
00:54:28
Speaker
the whoever catches that line up side right that's why Vui is so So valuable because even it when he's playing it's a huge Yeah, he's their lineup guy. Yeah big time I agreed and he gets he runs a lot. So hmm. Let's go to
00:54:49
Speaker
Our other friends at FRD, the thing you and I are going to do this Saturday, it's going to be a lot of fun. We will be doing a pod during it, so those of you that want to make fun of us, feel free to strap in and wait for that to come out. How far down the list, number one, how long do you wait on a guy that's away on international duty right now and potentially could be away on international duty in the spring? Well, I can tell you this much.
00:55:16
Speaker
based a lot of my picks in last year's, so in the last year's version of our Champions League, our top leader. I picked that strategy where I said, okay, I'm going to get some guys who, I'm going to skip over some players and kind of get the bottom of the barrel for the beginning of the year while the World Cup was going on. Then I flooded my team with like Itoji and
00:55:46
Speaker
I think Farrell and some other guys who were just some, I'm sure one of the wings, yeah, maybe ended up being Sarries too, but that's beside the point. It was just those are the guys who I grabbed. It did not work out well for me. So don't rely on that. I would say balance. You know, there's certain guys like
00:56:07
Speaker
Yeah, Ben Earl is a guy who we draft him sooner rather than later because he's going to get your points once he's back. Yes. But some other guys, Duncan Weir, you probably don't have to worry too much about because he's not the in the top option. The only reason he's with the national team now is because they have to. Yeah. So so you won't have to worry about him so much in Six Nations. No. So there's there's.
00:56:33
Speaker
variability within that. And then there's guys who just aren't going to score all that much. But there's also, it also makes certain people more valuable. Like Jimmy Gopper is valuable no matter what anyway as a center because. Well, he was a fly off last year. That's been changed. That's huge. Makes him hugely valuable. A kicking midfielder is huge, but I had Billy 12 shoes last year. That definitely propelled me forward big time. His points were huge coming into the year. Um,
00:57:00
Speaker
Also, there's been an adjustment to two guys whose names I want to bring up. JLDP is now a lock. That's terrifying.
00:57:10
Speaker
I might jump on that earlier than later. Because as we've seen, Donald Bryan a couple years ago was a lock. That was huge. Tui Tui last year was a lock. When he had games, he had fucking games. As a lock, that's huge. Lost, don't score shit.
00:57:30
Speaker
which I think in the past he's been a... No, he's been a lock the whole time. He's a quality grab when he's playing. Janice Kirsten is not a lock as well. That's a big one. That's another big one. So those two right there scream, grab me. So remember last year when we did this?
00:57:47
Speaker
The top scoring lock was Will Skelton, and he was well into the hundreds. Right now you have two, you have three that are still below 100 right now. Johnny Hill's away, so you kind of scrap him. Vooey and JLDP are in there. Kirsten could also suck up those Johnny Hill points, so I would really put three in there anyway, so just consider that. But here's the thing when you're drafting, if you miss out on JLDP,
00:58:16
Speaker
And maybe one of those other two guys and maybe one of those other two guys just wait until your last pick because guess what? Your lock is going to be the guy you cut the first because you're going to find it. That's going to be a week to week thing if you don't have
00:58:29
Speaker
That guy. Yeah, so we talked about most locks with a pulse right eligible. Yeah Playable, right because you only need you know with all the players out there that it's so much more about it's note There's absolutely no reason to have a lock on your bench. So Nobody does your way for wire everyone it's communism Doing it
00:58:56
Speaker
So yeah, but your lock, if you know, you might be better served making your lock your bat, your last pick, and just not... Courtney Laws is now a loose forward. That's a problem. Which is weird, but that's... That's a problem honestly, because he was way more useful as a lock than was there. Yeah, that's a major... Yeah, and they flip-flop Carperth and Nubaga, Nubaga's now a fly-off. Carperth is a midfielder now. So we'll see how that goes. Who's the other one that they put out there? And I'm trying to think of his name.
00:59:22
Speaker
I think it was Purdy. He was a midfielder last year. Yep, there he is. He's now an outside back. So yeah, keep your eyes on that one. Let's talk a little bit about the new guys into the club that a lot of people I kind of know about, the Newcastle guys. A name that I sent to you not too long ago, because I went and reviewed Newcastle's game reports last year. George Wakoka. Hopefully I said that right. He sort of shit little tries for them last year.
00:59:53
Speaker
You know, Redland and Tate were definitely on the list. But yeah, he was definitely one that I would clamp an eyeball on if I were looking for a steal in this one. And then...
01:00:06
Speaker
You know, I got bit by the Bristol bug last year at the front row and I still need the goddamn final. I just, you know, I sent my own battleship on that one. Um, but this year I do want to point out Alfie Barbary is still qualified as a hooker as far as FRT is going. So he's on the loose forward list at all. I don't believe, um,
01:00:31
Speaker
You can double check me on that. So, assuming that's the case, if you're on the bench for Watts, you have three hookers playing for that team in your front row, and that is huge. And the Watts finished very high last year because, again, they often had Agrae and Barbary, who are technically hookers, as far as FRD is concerned, contributing to that Watts front row score. So really, you know,
01:00:58
Speaker
Front rows are tough to figure out, especially, you know, we figured out that sale wear or pain in the ass to go against last year. So avoid them like the plague. I'm going to start the year as that as well, because I'm going to assume nothing's changed for them. Right. I think that's fair. You know, and then after that, it's kind of it's kind of up in the air. Don't sleep on New Castles Midnal. No. A front row. George McWiggin. Yeah.
01:01:19
Speaker
Excellent, excellent player knows what the trial line is can can bust loose That's a those are the two big things to worry about in this format is Tri scored and being able to make meters and bus tackles and also tackled can it was good too, but So yeah, don't be surprised with that and then we talked about last year
01:01:39
Speaker
especially with scrum halves and fly halves. And this is a fancy football term, NFL football here, and that's the handcuff. We talked about it last year with a couple of players. I think this year you can probably get away with a Diaz Bonilla forward handcuff if you want to.
01:02:02
Speaker
I would have no problem with going to the Bristol halfback handcuff. Yup, those two. You could do worse. Yup, absolutely. Just whichever one starts, go. The question then, to me, is Gloucester. Sys and Lloyd Evans, is it worth it? I don't know.
01:02:25
Speaker
I don't know. I'm saying not the hang out for the channel. Oh, geez. Yeah, the half packs. Well, Varney's away right now. Joe Simpson. How good did he do to get in the top 200 last year after playing so little? That's crazy. That's wild. So good on Steve Varney for getting there. Joe Simpson is quality. I had him last year for a long time.
01:02:47
Speaker
Willy Heinz didn't do dick when he came back, so... Yeah, well, he barely played when he came back, so... You didn't play much, no. Right. So you didn't get a chance to get into it, but he's always been a point scorer. So it's just a question of, if you don't know who was going there, which makes that... It reduces the draft value of all three of them. So, like, Simpson... In a way, yeah. Simpson, I would... I'd put him as one. He'd probably put him as one. Of their high half backs, I'd put him as one. Yeah, and I probably wouldn't draft Heinz.
01:03:13
Speaker
No, I'll sit on him. He'll be there. I'll sit on him. If I'm going to pick a halfback pairing that maybe is going under the radar here, Alex Mitchell and Henry Taylor, quality. Not going to light the world out of file, but they'll get you points. And each time, each one played, and they both had their good games. Not so bad. Not so bad.
01:03:41
Speaker
So, as the man that finished top of the pile last year in terms of points, is Sam Simmons your number one? Or do you put one of those two really good fly-hats up there? Or do you put one of the good outside backs, Peatower, all he has are Collins in there. Yeah. Peatower was the top scorer until he stopped playing so much. I think he must have got hurt. He got hurt.
01:04:09
Speaker
So that's the difference I think in between this league and the and the This format in TRM is that you don't have to worry about paperweight status like the guys are good You know, they're gonna score. Mm-hmm P entails problem wasn't its points total. It was just the amount of Coin you have to invest in them in TRM. Mm-hmm when it comes to draft It's all yeah, it's all open Simmons
01:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, because you've got to figure the drop-off in points between, you know, week to week, between an outside back, you know, the top outside back and the 50th outside back. It's going to be what, like three or four points, maybe a week. A week, yeah. It's not going to be that much. But in terms of loose forwards, shit, you know, Simmons, the next, the next loose forward is Ben Earl. The next one after that is Alex Dombrandt.
01:05:07
Speaker
uh... many at you don't get you saw some of the guys there but if he's not an option either so this display is there but they're all going to be gone for a good time you you pick again or you want to pick a loose forward again they're all going to be gone uh... and that the difference between so if i just just a second while i sort of loose forwards you know the difference between the sams simmons and just going down
01:05:32
Speaker
not very far to like, you know, a Blair Cowan or a Tui Tui is huge. Yeah. And yet they're only, you know, that's, you know, 14 apart, you know, and then you need to and you probably want to back up. So so yeah, so you got to figure maybe you need one high quality one, right? So you think it's going to be there's going to likely to be what you how many do we play?
01:05:55
Speaker
Two. Two loose forwards. Two loose forwards. So you got to figure there's going to be about 24. Yeah, you might have one on the bench. You might have 20, about 22. So there are real Jono Rosses is towards the end. But let's see if we go to the eighth best. You know, you're looking at it, Tamana Harrison, Zach Mercer. And if that's your top,
01:06:20
Speaker
Flanker. Mercer's not bad by any means whatsoever. No, no, I'm not shitting on him, but I mean, shit, I think it's worth having Sam Simmons early and then looking at a lesser outside back than it would be to have a better outside back and... Absolutely. Maybe not Tamara Harrison, but someone in that vein. Yeah. So I think Simmons would...
01:06:47
Speaker
Hard to argue with it. It's hard to argue that. Assuming, I will say assuming that Marcus Smith is healthy, man, you can make a super duper case for him as well. It's hard not to. Joe Simmons is probably on that list too. Honestly. Yeah. I mean, my top... Priestland's my number two. Yeah. Not bad.
01:07:08
Speaker
But that gets kind of shaggy. Don't shy away from Hodgson and Flood or Conan and Flood or something like that from Newcastle. They won't be pretty, but they won't get you points. They're not going to do what Joe Simmons, Marcus Smith, Priestland does.
01:07:30
Speaker
You know, it pretty soon does it all with this boot, but the other two can do it with their feet. Don't shy away from that. Just, you know, if you miss out on the big halfbacks, don't go reaching.
01:07:41
Speaker
Because you're afraid of what might not be there. If I remember correctly, though, too. AJ McGinney, because we have to talk about him because he's an eagle. I'm not sure he rates when he came back and played. 100%. So that's another one, the AJ McGinney and Rob Dupree. That might be another handcuff combo. Yeah, I had him near the end of the year. He did super well for me when I had him.
01:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, bad news for people that had Tui Tui last year. He is now a loose forward. I rode that train for a long time. It worked fairly well. So I'll take it. Matt Prochter got shift to a midfielder now. As did Curtis Rona. That's good. That's accurate at the very least. Does it stop having Rona as an outside back? Yeah, that's kind of silly. The new boys that are definitely that aren't Newcastle, Maroney, Meeks,
01:08:36
Speaker
jump, jump on, uh, jump on those guys. If you feel like you're, you know, kind of wallowing and like, yeah, I don't have anybody. Cobus, uh, Van Vucht, as well as, um, Tyrone green, those are guys coming over from super rugby that would definitely get on top of, um,
01:08:53
Speaker
You know, Nick Phipps is very hit or miss, but he's not bad if you want to pair him with me. So it depends on how... You definitely need them both. Yeah, if you don't have both, then sorry. Yeah, it would be very interesting to see how it goes.
01:09:13
Speaker
Those of you that are going by the default list, remember Byron McWiggin is hurt. He'll be hurt for a little while. He did something nasty to that hamstring and it's not good. Right. I think I even would take him off the list. Again, he's too far down in those outside backs.
01:09:28
Speaker
Um, and not really, you know, that was like, this was his format though. Like, this was the one format he thrived and he didn't thrive in the other ones. Um, this was his format. So when we had him, yeah. Um, and also mail-ins is now an outside back. He's no longer a fly half. Sorry. Well, he'll play like one year fly half and you'd be like, yeah. And that's going to be the, that's what he was also raking at 50. Yes, he was. He was doing quite well. If I remember correctly. Um,
01:09:58
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll see how this goes. Redpath might be a sleeper where he's a midfielder, isn't he? He is, but if he's playing at 10, very, very sneaky play there. Yeah, that'd be a very interesting one to see. Guys that kind of came on towards the end of the year last year. Levenberg played really well.
01:10:17
Speaker
What the hell is his name? Rafal from Leicester played very well as well. Will Evans kind of started having an uptick a little bit. Tom Willis obviously started to turn it on because he started getting play in time. And some of these guys are going to get more shots because the guys are away. So it would be very, very, very interesting.
01:10:38
Speaker
We have our lovely assistants. Yeah. Thankfully to sort us, me and Ben out. So, as I've stated on Twitter, we're going to make this a thing. We're really going to pump this league up. I think it's going to be fun. Thank you to those of you that didn't follow Ben and I on Twitter. We did fill out the league.
01:10:59
Speaker
Mark, Justin, Carrick, Anton, welcome. Thank you for joining us and starting this shit show. And just to have you. Yeah. So what we're going to do is we're going to draw a number. That'll be the order, the pick that's being drawn. And then we're going to draw some of these names. So I have a box. Ben has a box. I have one with numbers. Ben has one with names. So we'll start with a number.
01:11:29
Speaker
Six. Six. So, number six pick overall goes to... George. George! George! You get number six, buddy. And then another pick, the number here. Ooh, number one. Oh, first overall, I was getting it. Here we go. I was getting it. Jim Simmons, Joe Simmons coming off the board here.
01:11:58
Speaker
Justin. Oh no, Vermeulen's getting one. Shit. Two over. Can we retry that? Number five. Five, all right. Somebody gets to snipe something right before George. And then gets sniped. Duncan. Duncan. The unfortunate Luster Tigers fan amongst the group.
01:12:29
Speaker
And also the way we're going to do the conferences will be odds and evens. Whoever's picking odd, you guys are in a conference. Whoever's picking on the even numbers, you're going to be in a conference. All right, number four. Number four. All right, so right before Duncan. Carrick. So right now it's just some one. Carrick at four. Duncan at five. George at six.
01:12:54
Speaker
Number eight. Number eight. Well, not so bad. You get eight back pits, picks. This could be worse. Oh, sorry. It's, it's been, it's been. Well, you get two top 10 pick players no matter what, so. That's fair. That could be worse. That could be very worse. That could be very bad. I'm not sure I want to be, shit, I don't think I want to be three. Number two. Two, all right. You're number two to me, boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:13:28
Speaker
We'll see how this goes. At least I'll know which one I'm taking. I'll let the decision be made to him.
01:13:38
Speaker
Number seven. Seven. So who's left? Anton and Mark. Mark. Mark. Gotta beat me in our first podcast league last year. That means Anton is it? And that means Mr. Anton is number three.
01:13:56
Speaker
All right. Well, that was fun. Thank you. And we'll do this for each of the FRDs we play this year. As far as I know, Super Kirby is doing an FRD. There's enough overlap in the schedules between Aotearoa and AU. The new league will hopefully come into play in 2022, which sounds like it's going to be really awesome. We'll talk more about that later on. Thank you to my missus for helping us out and sorting us out as she usually does. Yeah, so that'll be fun.
01:14:25
Speaker
So let's go over it. We got Justin at one, Jared at two, Anton at three, Carrick at four, Duncan at five, George at six, Mark at seven, and myself then at eight. So the conferences will be Justin, Anton, Duncan, and Mark in one. Shit, you and I are in the same conference again, what the fuck? Myself, Carrick, oh geez, I don't like this at all.
01:14:50
Speaker
Why does that feel stacked? I don't know how that happened. Shit. So myself, Carrick, George, and Ben in the other conference, god damn. It's going to be a bloodbath. Yeah, there's nowhere to hide in this competition. I did do the points for each finish, and I think this will be fair. Subject to change, so don't hold a gun to this here. For FRD competitions, come here.
01:15:20
Speaker
So I can see the same thing. So FRD competitions are going to do five for first, not the Champions Cup. This is the others. Five for first, four for second. Three for making the semis but losing. Two for winning the SACO bracket. One for coming in second, the SACO bracket. If you lose your first SACO matchup, you're going to get nothing. So for both Prem and Super-Ruby FRD, that's what that would be.
01:15:48
Speaker
For a TRM premiership with Super Rugby, let's try and get that off the ground, shall we? Anybody that is involved in the TRM and wants to do Super Rugby, let's get a jump on that, shall we? Six for first, five for second, four, three, two, one for sixth, and then seven and eight, again, nada, you're on the donut, kids.
01:16:11
Speaker
For a Six Nations theorem and Champions Cup FRD, I messed with a little bit because they're shorter competitions. So these are the three or four I just described are grinds. So I decided to award a little bit more to those and not as much with the Champions Cup. Champions Cup FRD will be four for first, three for second, a pair for the two semi-finals that lose. A single point for the SACO winner and then anybody else gets another.
01:16:41
Speaker
And then for TRM, it'll be five and on down from there. First, we'll get five, four, three, two, one, and then six, seven, eight. Again, get nothing.
01:16:54
Speaker
I wanted to make sure that we were still in this almost to the end with at least a few people possibly having a shot at unseating somebody, even if they won all three, four, whatever competitions up to a certain point, assuming that with a shot that if they tanked it, they still lose. Yeah. If anybody in this group is able to win three competitions, then they deserve to be fucking wedged.
Community Building and Event Announcements
01:17:20
Speaker
Yeah. Something happened here. Something happened here, that's all I know. Yeah, there's too much talent in these eight to...
01:17:30
Speaker
Yeah, no. To see a double or a triple, I don't think that's going to happen at all. So yeah, I think we're at the end. And then even for, say, somebody to lose, get nothing in the first couple of competitions that finish, I still want them in it. So, you know, I wanted to make sure that they were still going to be in it because obviously right now we don't have a second league, but I plan on adding a second league
01:17:53
Speaker
next year so let's start thinking about relegation as well so we'll work on that but yeah welcome to you the other six guys that are gonna come along with for the ride with us we really appreciate you guys uh stepping in i know a lot of people were
01:18:09
Speaker
This is not a small commitment. I know there were a lot of people that were like, oh man, that's a lot, and they're not wrong. And some people, the times we're going through right now suck. So I totally appreciate the people that were invited and politely declined. I really do understand. It's an investment. So we're trying something. So let's do it. So we appreciate you guys trusting us. Making a link with us.
01:18:39
Speaker
We are looking, we are still looking for more people on this side of the pond to play FRD with. We would love to put together a league. Yeah, and then, you know, because obviously people together here one day would be nice. Maybe we could all hang out one day and do a draft together. That'd be kind of fun.
01:18:59
Speaker
Yeah, something like that. Those were always fun. Anyway, I mean, I suppose with Zoom now you can do this all, but still we want to get things going. We still want to get things going here in the US and this is one way that Ben and I know we can. So this is our contribution to the game here in the States. So if you're on the side of the pond and maybe you don't know quite enough about the fantasy,
01:19:22
Speaker
We'll go easy. We'll be nice. We promise. We'll help you out. We want this to be fun for everybody. It is fun. We haven't played for money yet, have we? No. And it's been more fun, honestly. It is. The money kind of makes it... It can make it sour sometimes. It really can. And let's keep this for fun. Yeah, for sure. I totally agree. For now. For now.
01:19:49
Speaker
with a caveat. But yeah, so it'll be, it's gonna be a fun season. We're gonna strap in, you know.
01:19:57
Speaker
We appreciate everybody has to probably just go. Holy shit. We're playing again. Yes, we are. Yeah. Yes, we are We're back there next week. We will the well this weekend. We'll we'll be on with with our friend George doing a live draft we'll set that up and Everybody can listen along as as we all just crumble our teams into integration No
01:20:24
Speaker
But until then, thanks for hanging out with us again, guys. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's great to be back. Yeah, I appreciate you guys. Come along and we'll be back on Saturday to hang out with you more. Have a good one, guys. Later. Cheers.