Fantasy Aviva Premiership season 4

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Welcome to the 4th season of the fantasy aviva premiership game


This Weeks match thread(s) :- TBA

Season One Homepage (Archived)

Season Two Homepage Part One(Archived)

Season Two Homepage Part Two(Archived)

Rules

Fixture/Results list

League Table

Top Points Scorers

Top Try Scorers

European Homepage

LV Anglo Welsh Cup Homepage

Transfer Homepage

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Unavailable Players

Waiting list for a team

1. Sam
2. pullthestrings
3. Bathite

Teams
Bath RFC
Manager:- 207bars

Exeter Chiefs
Manager:- RugbyDriver

Gloucester
Manager:- Anonmattyt

Harlequins
Manager:- Steve_sharks

Leicester Tigers
Manager:- LukeLovesLuka

London Irish
Manager:- stnick88

London Wasps
Manager:- Arry

Newcastle Falcons
Manager:- PoolyPunk

Northampton Saints
Manager:- Dammit_Chris

Sale Sharks
Manager:- SirJohnnyEnglish

Saracens
Manager:- LDCPete]

Worcester Warriors
Manager - Prop_Lyd

Think Pdj will have mujatis place.
He is made to look good by tiny and Hartley.

Mujati is decent as Is Pdj. None will set the world on fire currenlty but pdj keeps getting better and better and playing for Saints will benefit him.

Mujati was a bit part player in south Africa and I don't believe anyone can improve that quickly.

Pdj is not a both sides player he is dross on the loose but at tight head his scrummaging is very good and his loose work is improving but not the best. I would have pdj as back up th for England every day of the week and he would not let us down. If he improves as much as he has done this year he will be a serious player.

Much rather have kept him rather than Attwood. He will be missed massively

PDJ is very solid agree matt he wont let you down.
mujati's had a great season think will be a rotation between them next season. mercey should move on i'd like him at irish.

be interesting to see who we go for if fourie goes to Sale. Wonder whether we would try Haskell? if not it may well be a S15 player.

I think Mujati is far better than PDJ in my book. Tonga'uhia is good but I would say its more down to Mujati than him that the Saints scrum is so good.

Be very surprised if Mujati isn't first choice. He would solve a lot of SA's problems at TH

PDJ will be ahead of Mujati for me, he's a good player but think Hartley and Tonga make him look better. Can see West making PDJ best TH in the AP with a few months work, best move he could have done. I am a fan of Mujati tho.

https://www.606v2.com/t5586-who-do-the-scots-want-as-there-9-at-the-rwc#124272

Think that's pretty conclusive, Cussiter is by far the best option the Jocks have myself and I'm pretty sure he'll sure he'll be first choice. Just needs to back his talent up in the next few months.

65% of the jocks want cussiter. 35 % want someone else. A majority win for the lad. Interesting comments on there.

He's their best option by a fair bit if firing but a year out is a long time and Lawson has had a good season.

What about the Welsh scrum halfs then, Phillips can't even get in the O's side anymore!

Dwayne Peel

Phillips only played before to compensate for the back rows lack of a physical presence. Now Warburton and Lydiate are playing on the flanks they don't need him for it now. But no doubt Gatland will stick with him and blow Wales world cup.

My thinking is that Mujati is far better in the loose than PDJ and that is key to the Northampton Saints style of play. I would still say Mujati is a better scrummager but its hard top measure TH v TH I find.

I am not convinced it will be West who makes PDJ whatever he becomes at Saints. West was a hooker so he may not be the scrummaging guru.

Phillips is still sensational on his day. I will always stand by my view that Phillips was the best 9 in the world during the 09 Lions tour.

I would also go Dwayne Peel. Not a fan of Richie Rees myself

Phillips is great on his day and he was sensational on the lions tour and was the best in the world at the time.

The problem is living in wales. it's such a goldfish bowl and the players are expected to be seen out drinking and socialising in the towns etc. Go out in Swansea, LLanelli or Cardiff and you will see the players out on the tear quite often.

it's that unprofessionalism that hinders welsh rugby. look at James Hook. he is a model professional but because he stays away from the limelight etc there are all thesed welsh rumours that he is gay.

The amount of players who have left wales and become better players is startling. Phillips should leave wales now.

Some people ciriticise Phillips service. They must remember on the lions tour he was hitting the outside centre off the back of rucks, scrums etc as a deliberate ploy to move the ball wide to create space and to move them around. a scrum half with poor service could not hit 13 off the back of scrums and mauls with that velocity

steve reckon it could well be fourie that has signed for sale. definitly isnt coming to irish anymore, think we've turned our attentions to haskell.

Agree with everything you've said Matt. Unfairly criticised behind a welsh pack which has been strong at set pieces but until recently lacked any real powerful carriers in the loose.

I would say that behind a backrow of Faletau, Lydiate and Warburton Phillips would shine as would Peel.

And Nick I expect it to be Fourie now but Steve Hanley is now saying and I quote

'just heard we a very very close to a huge signing, hopefully be able to confirm this week' SH

as well as Neil Leigh the Manchester Evening news Sale correspondent saying:

'Master wheeler-dealer Dimes off to France for talks with a player having just sealed a major coup' NL

So it could be exciting times. Just waiting for the official confirmation of the signing of Alex Blair from Edinburgh. Could just be another false dawn at Sale but Diamond has a better track record than Brewer.

Interesting times

Never liked Phillips myself, awful pass for a supposedly top class SH. Great carrier and presence.

Think he is a confidence player. on that lions tour i watched pretty much every single game live and none of the other SH's pass got near to being as good as Phillips.

It's amazing that when you are confident everything comes off. Look at someone like nonu. when he is confident and on form even his passing is ok. When not confident he can barely catch and throws the ball all over the place.

Same goes for loads of players. A great example of this is Steven Myler his kicking is directly linked to his confidence.

Leeds wont deal with Irish so they've moved on to Haskell from what I hear. Happy with either really.

You reckon it could be a fly half Steve? You need one! Michalak?

I hope so. Diamond is after one and had 250k a year to spend on one but couldnt attract anyone. Michalak would be good. Would rather us not sign Henson as we already have a liablilty in Andy Powell

Not having HC must make it harder to attract people.

Lads am after an 8,10,13 and winger....willing to use people like james, bastereaud, JMH, J.P Pieterson, sackey, vardnell, kirchner, stowers, powell, mapusua in deals.

When does the nest transfer window open?

Really hope I don't enter a bidding war for my No.1 target...

June 1st luke

Anyone on here fancy joining the ERL?

Got a few vacancies to fill, Northampton Saints, Clermont and Toulon

As we near the transfer window who are people interested in??

Personally i want either Deon fourie the outstanding Stormers Hooker or Strauss the Cheetahs hooker. him and outshuizen have been on fire and destroying scrums so keen to link the 2 up/


Also like the Stormers 2nd row ( not bekker) outstanding prospect. Also Hargreaves the Sharks 2nd row is a great player if anyone needs a lock

Higginbotham has been playing well.
Aplon is a decent versatile back 3 player.
Matt Todd and Keegan Daniels been playing well.
John Afoa and Wyatt Crockettt have been playing well too.


No idea who I am going for yet.

might go for ashley johnson of the cheetahs.

Theres still the likes of Kronke, Boullihou, Beaxuis etc playing up here in the north. Should be a very interesting window to see who people go for especially with the world cup accounting for a third of the league this year i think i saw pete say some where!

Beattie, Jauzion can be sold for top class tighthead or English.

Driver

Someone may already have asked this but will all players in any WC squad be unavilible during the World Cup?

Yes Steve

Ah so that explains Pete's re-jigging of the squad then...I'm going for a 2, a 9 and probably a utility back!

Fourie to Sale confirmed. great signing for them.

I seem to of accumulated a large amount of number 8's.
So George Stowers, Chris Hala'ufia and Andy Powell are available if anyone is in need of one!

Who's up for some deals today? Out shopping with the missus so need some distraction!! Most available bar JOC, McCaw, Read, PDJ.

England side to face the Baa Baas announced...


England XV: Mike Brown (Harlequins); James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester Rugby), Henry Trinder (Gloucester Rugby), Matt Banahan (Bath Rugby), Ugo Monye (Harlequins); Charlie Hodgson (Sale Sharks), Paul Hodgson (London Irish); Joe Marler (Harlequins), David Paice (London Irish), Paul Doran-Jones (Gloucester Rugby), Graham Kitchener (Worcester Warriors), David Attwood (Gloucester Rugby), Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs), Carl Fearns (Sale Sharks), Luke Narraway (Gloucester Rugby, captain)

Replacements: Joe Gray (Harlequins), Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons), James Gaskell (Sale Sharks), Jamie Gibson (London Irish), Micky Young (Newcastle Falcons), Stephen Myler (Northampton Saints), Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)


Some rela potential in there, going to be a fascinating game.

Basteraud vs Banahan

Guys - these are the positions that I am looking for. Anyone in theory is available, but you pay for what you get obviously. Let me know if you can help.

TH - available during WC (ie. better than Faan)
Enforcer lock
Natural BS - Can swap for one of my 8's
World class IC
Full back

Interesting to see how Banahn goes at 12, and also Trinder outside him at 13.

Interestingly (or maybe not), I have had 11 of those players in the 23 in my Saracens squad at some point during this game, with 5 of them being in my current squad.

interesting team. happy to see gibson on the bench. great prospect.

think the baa baa's will win but good experience for england.

Huge weekend of rugby this weekend. Massive games in all competitions, starting tonight with the T14 semi between ASM and Toulouse, then the second semi tomorrow between RM92 and Montpellier, along with the ML and AP finals, then the Reds v Crusaders and England v the Baa Baas on Sunday.

That's a lot of rugby to watch!

Pete your forgetting the Murrayfield 7's!

I can't wait for the Reds v Crusaders. Going to be a very early morning for me on Sunday!

Out of interest how many players are people expecting to lose for the WC? I have done a quick count up and could lose 24. That is including the possible squad men like Dickson and Marler etc.

I'll have to pick and choose carefully...Toulouse/ASM will be a cracker.

I'm expecting to lose 26 to the W/C Steve

Max of around 32 (Slade gets fitness, Robshaw, PDJ picked)

More likely to be around the 25 mark

I'm going to try to watch all of it, they're all in the Sky planner, but I am also out tonight at the London Scottish end of season awards dinner, so will be playing catch up from the start.

I think I will lose about the same Steve, but I am reasonably happy with what my line up will be during that period, as everyone else is going to be weakened as well.

I think it'll be quite interesting, I'll be happy with mid table at the end of the WC.

A fan of London Scottish pete or simply attenfing the function?

Very into my National league rugby. Some simply stunning players playing in them.

add in the Barcelona v Man Utd, the PGA champ at Wentworth...great weekend of sport. Perfect for an all day session.

I reckon I'll lose about 16, but a lot can change have some fringe players.

Nonu gets 2 and Jane gets 1 in a bonus pont win.

Hurricanes back to form?

Had a few big players back in Jane and Conrad, they've not got the squad to compete with those players out.

they need to string a few results together. western force arent having a good season so beating them at home is no massive achievement.

Also looking for some deals. Looking to build team around Beale

What position will you be playing Beale at ?

Very difficult to build a team around a FB I'd have thought.

15. Well what I meant was he's the only one that is not for sale unless I get a few world class back.