Sasue - What went wrong in Round 9?

The teams that provide the bulk of your fantasy selections and mine - all lost their games and the performance of some of our choice players were really putrid.   I am glad about one thing - I never had any Crusaders in my starting line-up - they are yo-yos up and down, but mostly down..   I think they were the most disappointing of all the teams.   I was going to change my lock  selections to Luatua - but could not so that because of the bye this week.  I am bringing him in next week though.  

I do really believe in one thing - and that is a good player in a poor team  must be exceptional before I would choose him again.  My biggest disppointment was Hosea Gear and he has now had two poor games in a row.   He is a goner this week and I already have a cheaper player in mind. 

Another gross disappointment really is Tameifuna.   In Afrikaans "Tamaai"   means very big.  He is big - but dumb as well.   Going- going - gone this week.  Slipper is definitely the one to follow.  If Afeaki comes back after injury I will bring him on Board as well.

I was overall happy with the number of points produced by Serfontein - and am going to keep him on the bench  and sell Jordaan to get Kahui.   When is the latter going back to Japan? 

In the weeks to come I am also going to dispose of Conrad Smith and rather bring Brier in.  By the way I see the Hurricanes are playing the Western Force this weekend.  I hope they are not going to do a Crusaders on us.   Will keep Smith  because of that game only.

I hope this coming week the rest of the teams stay unchanged and I can accommodate all four the chnages I have in mind.   I am delighted in not changing to Genia this week.  Will for the time being rather stick with Reinach

I see oi-matey scored heavily with Conrad Smith - but he is erratic and was poor in his previous two games.  I  still think I am going to get rid of Todd and go for Cane this coming weekend.  Should have kept him against the Highlanders - they really are the palooka team this year. 

I hope the rest of the players I have on board - either as starters or bench players - remain in their starting teams - which will help towards the re-building exercise I am busy with.

In the meantime I am still baffled by the results of the games this weekend.   They were mostly at odds with what was expected and the bookmakers must all be laughing all the way to the bank.  

@mikey,
long time no hear bro, lolz. had a pretty tough weekend on the foxsport circuts, lost my umpteenth nmatch in a row on head to head which sees mee sitting almost 8th, got kicked out of the top 3 on the other normal league and in the saru.com leabue, u & pimatey have uncermoniously dumped my ass out of pole position, :o(

LMAO, congrats though bro, but watch ur back, cos like sting said every move u make, every step u take, ill be watching u,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but not in a creepy stalker kind of a way which that sounded like, lolz, :oP

in regards to some of those comments, i considered taumafuina too but i know he will be relegated back to the bench as soon as afeaki is back, so iopted down another path in the hopes of finding someone who could be a permanenet fixture. they were also playing the reds & IMO they have the two best props in the country & 2nd best hooker, so that was never going to be an easy battle upfront.

kahui wont be going back until end of the season like most the other folks, last year the top league didnt start til the end of august whcih is why SBW was allowed to play in the first two bledisloe tests.
im prob going to get rid of crotty this week, maybe get in kahui too, but i gotta tell u im starting to subscribe to the theory that u have jinxing powers, and thats making me a little hesitant,,,,,o_O, LMAO, :oP

i hope the hurricanes dont capitulate either, but i dont think thats going to happen, i think the same thing will happen in rnd 10 as it did in rnd 5, cos when NZ lost three games to SA, the following week three SA teams lost their games with the sharks & bulls both getting their clocked cleans. thats the price u pay for beating NZ teams IMO, lolz, :oP

oimatey scored heavily with conrad smith??? lost me there mate, conrad only scored 16 points??? o_O

cane for todd sounds like a nice trade im very tempted to bring in george smith again for the next round, but that depends on my transfer numbers.

i saw that reinach paid of handsomely for u, but halfbacks really are the worst position to gauge, anyone can be a hero one week and zero the next. i might get reinach too to replace kingi on the bench whose out for 12 weeks, but im still going to start brendan mcbbin simply for the fact that hes the teams goal kicker & should earn double digit points every time.

Sasue

I had some hard choies I have to make this week.  I wish I had five Transfers - that would have solved all my problems.   There was no injries of players I went for and the choices I would have liked to make are:-

*   Tameifuna to sell and buy Slipper

*   Simmons (Reds) to sell and buy Du Toit

*   Todd to sell and by Cane

*   Jordaan to sell and buy Kahui

*    Gear to sell and buy ????- I a thinking of this one still - my secret for the week

After much thought onthe issue I am likely to retain Tamefuna for a week - put him on the bench and buy Slipper next week.   Hopefully the teams to be announced will contain all my starters as I had and I will make some futher moves as to bench players as well.  I am still considering who to use as Captain - so that will only be decided at the last moment.

I am perfectly happy with Reinach as my first choice scrummie - matter of fact I hope he makes the Springbok team this year.

On the issue of George Smith - I am not entirely convinced yet.   He no dount had an excellent game on Friday - but that was not against top class opposition.   This after two bad point-scoring games in a row against the Bulls and the Cheetahs.   I don't think he will show the same in the coming week against the Reds.- so for this week I stick with my preferred four loosies - Savea, Cane, Labuschagne and Coetzee .   I was hoping that you and oi-matey put Labuschagne on the bench for this past weekend.

In any event the race between oi-matey, you and me are too close to call and this coming weekend may result in further changes for top honours in that position.  Watch out foe me this weekend - I am going to score heavily.  LOL

Sasue

I had some hard choies I have to make this week.  I wish I had five Transfers - that would have solved all my problems.   There was no injries of players I went for and the choices I would have liked to make are:-

*   Tameifuna to sell and buy Slipper

*   Simmons (Reds) to sell and buy Du Toit

*   Todd to sell and by Cane

*   Jordaan to sell and buy Kahui

*    Gear to sell and buy ????- I a thinking of this one still - my secret for the week

After much thought onthe issue I am likely to retain Tamefuna for a week - put him on the bench and buy Slipper next week.   Hopefully the teams to be announced will contain all my starters as I had and I will make some futher moves as to bench players as well.  I am still considering who to use as Captain - so that will only be decided at the last moment.

I am perfectly happy with Reinach as my first choice scrummie - matter of fact I hope he makes the Springbok team this year.

On the issue of George Smith - I am not entirely convinced yet.   He no dount had an excellent game on Friday - but that was not against top class opposition.   This after two bad point-scoring games in a row against the Bulls and the Cheetahs.   I don't think he will show the same in the coming week against the Reds.- so for this week I stick with my preferred four loosies - Savea, Cane, Labuschagne and Coetzee .   I was hoping that you and oi-matey put Labuschagne on the bench for this past weekend.

In any event the race between oi-matey, you and me are too close to call and this coming weekend may result in further changes for top honours in that position.  Watch out foe me this weekend - I am going to score heavily.  LOL

Sasue

I had some hard choies I have to make this week.  I wish I had five Transfers - that would have solved all my problems.   There was no injries of players I went for and the choices I would have liked to make are:-

*   Tameifuna to sell and buy Slipper

*   Simmons (Reds) to sell and buy Du Toit

*   Todd to sell and by Cane

*   Jordaan to sell and buy Kahui

*    Gear to sell and buy ????- I a thinking of this one still - my secret for the week

After much thought onthe issue I am likely to retain Tamefuna for a week - put him on the bench and buy Slipper next week.   Hopefully the teams to be announced will contain all my starters as I had and I will make some futher moves as to bench players as well.  I am still considering who to use as Captain - so that will only be decided at the last moment.

I am perfectly happy with Reinach as my first choice scrummie - matter of fact I hope he makes the Springbok team this year.

On the issue of George Smith - I am not entirely convinced yet.   He no dount had an excellent game on Friday - but that was not against top class opposition.   This after two bad point-scoring games in a row against the Bulls and the Cheetahs.   I don't think he will show the same in the coming week against the Reds.- so for this week I stick with my preferred four loosies - Savea, Cane, Labuschagne and Coetzee .   I was hoping that you and oi-matey put Labuschagne on the bench for this past weekend.

In any event the race between oi-matey, you and me are too close to call and this coming weekend may result in further changes for top honours in that position.  Watch out foe me this weekend - I am going to score heavily.  LOL

 Pepper is only 100 points behind in 4th and square eyes (who is that?) only about 220 - thats one good week, definitely anybody's game at this point.

In Testrugby its a different story with the top three (Lightbringers, The Boss and sasuke) starting to create some separation.

oi-matey

Pepper is Rooinek - I do not know who Square Eyes.   Yes it can happen that the team scores vary - but you have virtually done the impossible by getting more than 120 points back in one week.   Normally the variations are between 30 and 60 points per week - probably more likely in the vicinity of the lower range.   However, player performances vary and is normally better when their team is on top - and less so when the team is under pressure.  

Take for instance your key picks of Moore and George Smith,   Moore was definitely not the top hooker in Super 15 in the previous two weeks and so was Smith.  Their reversal of form was the reason for the sudden upsurge in points.

Another example of form variation is Genia.  He was good fr two games and then suddenly went sour on Saturday.   He may rebound this week and I was thinking to change my selection and bring him on Board - but as indicated I have other problem areas of a much more pressing nature than to think about Genia at this stage.

On the whole if you take the team composition the selections of the top four teams shows a lot of similarities - which make it much more difficult to catch up

True Clevermike. Still formulating my approach to fantasy rugby, but the opponent matchups don't necessarily have as much bearing on individual point performances as you would initially think. I agree with your assessment on having players on successful teams as a general rule. Its quite different to American football fantasy where matchups are very important, especially as you have teams that are great against the run and poor against the pass so you can align your starting running backs and wide receivers appropriately. 

On a whole though I am actually enjoying fantasy rugby more - games are obviously more fun to watch, even more so when you have someone playing who is starting on your fantasy squad.

Testrugby should have a compo for the Lions tour as well as the 4 Nations, no?