Fantasy International Rugby: Round 2 Preview

Australian fullback Israel Folau looms large as one of the premiere options for Round 2 of Fantasy International Rugby. Photo / Getty Images.

The opening round of Dream Team Fantasy International Rugby is over and, with it, comes some lessons on how to best approach the game going forward.

Firstly, well done to those of you who selected England's Mike Brown as your fullback. He recorded one of the best fantasy days we've ever seen in any of our games in recording 130 points for his owners.

Secondly, well done to those who found value from unlikely places. Ireland's Iain Henderson was the best second rower in the game, Mamuka Gorgodze of Georgia was the best back rower while Canada's DTH van der Merwe topped all centre/wings with 82 points.

While the latter two of those players came out of nowhere, both Brown and Henderson's performances came against lesser-ranked opposition while only three of the best 16 players in the opening round came from the minnows.

So continue to avoid players from teams facing higher-ranked sides and take advantage of mismatches.

This coming round provides several such mismatches and the potential for huge points for those sides playing twice in the round.

One of the quirks of this competition is this last point and any players in your side who play twice in a round will have both of their scores counted towards your team total. If one of those players is your captain, they'll have this bumper total doubled.

However, remember that once the first of those fixtures has begun; those players are locked in to your starting XV and cannot be moved in between those two games. So if Quade Cooper plays in the first game, but not the second, that will just be tough luck for your team.

This coming round sees Australia, Scotland and Romania all play twice. So if you can predict which stars from these teams are likely to play twice, then you'll be well on your way to a huge score.

It's certainly a very tough prediction but my early guesses see Scotland's Tommy Seymour, Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray, Romania's Danut Dumbrava, Catalin Fercu and Florin Vlaicu all start twice.

Australia are unlikely to give many of their players 80 minutes in either of their fixtures, but their hookers and half-backs seem to be set for more minutes than most. If you believe Mike Brown's performance at fullback was a fluke, Israel Folau is your marquee option in the position this week.

Other great match-ups to exploit in the round see New Zealand play Namibia, while France and Ireland both play Romania.

Listen to Radio Sport every week, the day before each fantasy round begins, after 6pm to hear Dr Stats chat with D'Arcy Waldegrave about the latest fantasy news and advice.

Top Picks:
Israel Folau, Australia
Brice Dulin, France
Wesley Fofana, France
Stuart Hogg, Scotland
Florin Vlaicu, Romania
Beauden Barrett, New Zealand
Julian Savea, New Zealand

On the bench:
Cory Allen, Wales (out of tournament)
Andrea Masi, Italy (out of tournament)
Yoann Huget, France (out of tournament)
Jonathan Joseph, England (in doubt to play)
Dominiko Waqaniburotu, Fiji (suspended one game)
Mariano Galarza, Argentina (cited for foul play)