Fantasy Secrets: Selecting the perfect captain
Captains get double points in our fantasy game so it's important to choose the player who is likely to score the most points come game time. Here are a few quick tips to help you make the right choice.
Fantasy rugby can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be, but one of the key aspects to performing well is choosing the right captain for the upcoming game week.
We all want to be the one who captains Ellis Genge when he smashes out 115 points in a weekend, or seeing that Sam Simmonds hit a 60 pointer with a 'C' by his side, but how do you go about ensuring you've made the right choice?
Consistency is certainly one of the key metrics. If a player is banging out great performances week in week out then he stands out as a great choice. There's more to it than that though; what if other players peak above your selected player week in week out; how do you see the pattern?
One of the keys is understanding both the style of game the player plays, how this fits into their team style, and the impact the opposition will have on the game.
Using Sam Simmonds as an example, he is expected to earn plenty of points throughout the season, but he doesn't always deliver high scoring performances. Many of his points, much like Thomas Waldrom, his predecessor in the number eight shirt at Exeter, come from retrieving the ball at the back of their driving maul or being part of their forwards orientated style of play. There were times last season however, where certain teams were able to nullify this threat, not least Saracens in the final. Simmonds scored 23 points in that game, some way short of his best performances which saw him climb to nearly 80 points.
An option that many often take into consideration is to captain your kicker, after all he's going to be popping shots at goal all day so there are guaranteed points in that aren't there? Ostensibly yes, but in reality the justification for doing so is pretty thin. Take Owen Farrell as an example; he is undoubtedly a quality rugby player, and has the opportunity to plug plenty of goals over the course of the season, and as we highlighted in our 'Best Kicker Choices' article, he has scored 93 fantasy points over the course of the last 40 Premiership fixtures. Granted, he has missed some games through international duty which will knock his average per game up slightly, but ultimately 180 extra points from kicking makes little difference over the course of the season when you could have over 200 from a single top Ellis Genge performance.
Indeed props are a good choice for captains, but don't be fooled into thinking that they are always the stand out option. We don't often see a prop go on a marauding run and crash over the try line, and so unless you're a caution to the wind kind of person, they probably ought to be avoided for long term selection.
Who does that leave? Well, our projection tool can give you an idea of who is expected to earn good points at the weekend, but you should try to pick a player from a team you expect to be in the ascendancy; attacking points are generally higher than defensive points, though a player that combines both would be a good choice. If a player's team are on the front foot and putting the opposition under pressure in defence, someone like Alex Goode or Telusa Veainu are excellent choices with their counter-attacking potential. Equally, wingers are good when they cover a lot of metres; tries are important, but metres are key. Someone like Christian Wade would perhaps fall into this category. He scores a lot of tries for sure, but with the ability of players like Willie le Roux inside him, often there is little that he needs to do but get over the try line.
The key to success doesn't rest on your choice of captain, but it certainly plays a part in your achievement over the course of the season.
Filed under:
Gallagher Premiership, The Scout
Written by: Edward Kerr
Follow: @edwardrkerr · @therugbymag