Fantasy Super Rugby: Round 10 Preview

By Dr Stats

NZ Herald·

16 Apr, 2015 01:47 AM4 mins to read

Aaron Smith has been a poor selection in Dream Team Fantasy Super Rugby despite his side's success. Photo / Getty Images

With the recent change of seasons and the end of daylight savings, it seems about the right time to once again clean out our fantasy squads and say goodbye to some dead weight.

To be an effective fantasy coach, you need to be constantly keeping tabs on player selections, playing time trends, as well as pure playing form.

Without the above, you'll inevitably end up with a squad that looks a bit like the one our celebrity expert Leigh Hart currently owns.

Below are the low-lights of Mr Hart's current fantasy squad; they're also players owned by more than 5% of owners in the game and should be moved on as soon as possible.

Adam Ashley-Cooper, Waratahs
Ashley-Cooper has only made three appearances in an injury-hit season so far; he's averaging just four points in those games. He's also currently one of the worst players in our game for points per dollar spent.

Aaron Smith, Highlanders
Despite the strong real life form of his side, Smith continues to rack up unforced errors that limit his fantasy scores. He's currently making 2 handling errors, missing 1.6 tackles and conceding 1.1 penalties per game.

Ben Tameifuna, Chiefs
The reason Big Ben has been fantasy relevant in the past has been the Chiefs' strategy of using him as a battering ram close to the try line. That hasn't happened so far this season and Tameifuna has hit double figures just once in 2015 as a result.

Sam Carter, Brumbies
Carter hasn't scored above five points in five of his eight appearances this season and his overall price drop reflects this.

Robbie Fruean, Crusaders
Maybe Leigh Hart knows more than I do, but I'm sure Fruean's out for the season - over 8% of teams out there are still to realise this news.

While I've chosen to pick on Leigh this week to illustrate the amount of dead weight that's still highly owned in the game, there are further examples that he's managed to avoid.

Jimmy Cowan, Dominic Bird, Hosea Gear, Richie McCaw, Marcell Coetzee and Ihaia West are all examples of players just not performing in fantasy land and should be traded away quick-fast.

Once again there are some big names missing from the coming weekend's round of fixtures despite just the Lions being on the bye.

Ryan Crotty and Luke Braid are out with concussion symptoms, Willie le Roux has been rested and Damien McKenzie has been dropped.

While the Brumbies suffered two major injuries in last weekend's loss to the Blues with Matt Toomua and Scott Sio both out for around six weeks each.

Interestingly, Waratahs winger Taqele Naiyaravoro cannot get a visa to play outside of Australia and so he takes a seat as well.

Get the latest fantasy advice from Dr Stats Thursdays at 6.25pm on Radio Sport with D'Arcy Waldegrave.

On the bench:
Ryan Crotty, Crusaders (out 1-2 weeks)
Luke Braid, Blues (out 1-2 weeks)
Victor Vito, Hurricanes (out 1-3 weeks)
Willie le Roux, Cheetahs (rested)
Matt Toomua, Brumbies (out 4-6 weeks)
Damian McKenzie, Chiefs (dropped)
Nic White, Brumbies (benched)
Scott Sio, Brumbies (out 6-10 weeks)
Dave McDuling, Reds (out indefinitely)
Michael Rhodes, Stormers (out 6-8 weeks)
Joe Moody, Crusaders (benched)
Owen Franks, Crusaders (benched)
Jimmy Tupou, Crusaders (benched)
Matt Todd, Crusaders (benched)
Taqele Naiyaravoro, Waratahs (can't play outside of Australia)
Augustine Pulu, Chiefs (benched)
Andrew Horrell, Chiefs (benched)
Charlie Faumuina, Blues (benched)
Kane Koteka, Force (out 1-2 weeks)
Ash Dixon, Highlanders (benched)
Brendon Edmonds, Highlanders (benched)
Tom Franklin, Highlanders (benched)
Shaun Treeby, Highlanders (rested)
Blake Enever, Brumbies (benched)
James Dargaville, Brumbies (out indefinitely)
Saia Fainga'a, Reds (out indefinitely)
Anthony Fainga'a, Reds (benched)
Ryan Kankowski, Sharks (out indefinitely)
Lourens Adriaanse, Sharks (benched)
Dale Chadwick, Sharks (dropped)
Nic Groom, Stormers (benched)
Manuel Carizza, Stormers (out 1-2 weeks)
Scarra Ntubeni, Stormers (benched)
Jacques Potgieter, Waratahs (benched)
Matt Carraro, Waratahs (benched)
Jacques-Louis Potgieter, Bulls (dropped)
Arno Botha, Bulls (benched)
Trevor Nyakane, Bulls (benched)
Callie Visagie, Bulls (benched)