Super14 Fantasy Comp: naming the Champ

It was a hard fought season with heaps of strong contenders, but there could only be one winner of the G&GR Fantasy League. That winner, and proud owner of a Double Gold Pass from the ARU, was none other than SCRUMBLUE’s SCUMBAGS! Huge, well-deserved congrats to him for taking the title home! He grabbed the lead in round 14 and never let go, but had been in the top ten from week 5 on. Now that’s consistency!

We also kept our #1 spot for league average too! So in an “A for effort” kind of way, we’re all champs! But seriously, that’s a great collective effort to hold the top spot from day one. The top 5 stayed the same, as there wasn’t really much movement in the final week. With only two teams of players to choose from, scores were bound to be fairly similar. But well done to them for finishing so strongly.

I’ve also been in touch with our champ, so here’s a few words about the man.

What’s your background, especially as it pertains to rugby?
I grew up in Canberra and played juniors for Norths Rugby Club, then for Wests Rugby Club (I think it was the club’s annual all-you-can-eat pie night that sealed the new ‘contract’…). My family moved to Sydney so I played for my school, then a year of Colts with Gordon Rugby Club.

For University I headed to Bathurst, NSW, and I got involved with St Stanislaus’ College’s coaching setup, helping out with two U/15s teams and fitness/conditioning for their senior and U/16’s squads. I also did a bit of reffing during my uni days for a bit of extra cash, but gave it away because it felt dirty.

These days I live and work in Bangkok, Thailand, playing for the Southerners Rugby Club (www.southerners-bangkok.com). We play in the local Thailand Rugby Union comp, a number of 10’s/7’s tournaments, as well as tour to countries all over SE Asia. We also dabble in the odd bottle of port.

Do you support any particular teams?
Brumbies, London Irish, Argentina, Wallabies

Living overseas, have you seen the Wallabies in person before?
I’ve been lucky enough to have seen them play live quite a few times before I moved to Thailand – my first ever test match was when my old man took me to see Australia beat England at the SFS in 1997. I’ve seen a fair few matches at Stadium Australia, including the ‘greatest game ever’ in 2000, and the Bledisloe in 2001 when Toutai fisted the ABs in the final seconds. Also went to the 2003 world cup and watched the Wallabies just get over Ireland in their final pool match in Melbourne.

What brought you to G&GR and the fantasy comp?
Been reading the G&GR posts now for a fair while, I like the banter. It was my second year doing the Fox fantasy, so I thought I’d get amongst this year’s G&GR league.

Were there any philosophies or strategies that you stuck to that brought you victory?
I reckon I was actually pretty lucky to win the league…some pretty stiff competition. I pulled a fair few high-scoring picks out of my ass. In general I:

Picked blokes at the start who I thought would run the ball a fair bit. I thought the S14 would open up with the new law interpretations and the points in fantasy are all geared to runners.
Tried to eat as many pies as possible while watching the matches as I felt this improved my concentration and analytical abilities.
Picked as many goal kickers as possible.
Got married in one of the final rounds and forgot to put my tips in – ended up getting a pretty handy score with Pocock doing well as my captain (I would have probably booted him for Morne Steyne who ended up having a rough game). Got to thank the missus for that one.
Picked blokes from attacking teams, especially when they were due to play weaker sides.

Good on ya mate! And thanks to all for playing this year!

You can follow our champ Scrumblue on Twitter here