Who were the top scorers in each round and who were the top players in each position? Read on to find out and make sure you bookmark this for next year's game!
First thing's first: the top scorers in each round.
Kicking off back in round one, it was Ellie Kildunne who started the tournament firing - spoiler alert: this is not the last time the Red Roses fullback gets a mention - with a huge 75-point haul against Italy. This was by virtue of her two tries, 205 metres carried, seven defenders beaten and her Player of the Match award.
In round two it was Vittoria Vecchini. Italy’s hooker put on an outstanding show against Ireland with two tries, one breakdown steal, 51 metres carried, three defenders beaten and a considerable 18 tackles. This also resulted in a Player of the Match performance that netted Vecchini and her fantasy owners a highly impressive 68 points.
Into round three and it was a star of Ireland’s historic victory against Wales, Aoife Wafer, who was making all the headlines. Wafer’s Player of the Match performance saw the back rower carry for 150 metres, beat 10 defenders and score one try, as well as assisting another.
Round four saw the biggest overall individual score of the tournament courtesy of Kildunne. She continued her incredible try-scoring form in England’s 88-10 victory over Ireland at Twickenham. In this match, Kildunne added her 7th, 8th and 9th tries of the tournament in a dazzling performance that netted her an incredible 126 points. This was easily the highest score in 2024 in either the men’s or women’s fantasy games. In addition to her hat-trick of tries, Kildunne added to her score by carrying for 350 metres, beating 17 defenders and providing two assists.
Super Saturday witnessed Kildunne's teammate, Alex Matthews, leading the scoring with 78 points through her two tries, two breakdown steals, one lineout steal, 15 tackles, 32 metres carried and four defenders beaten (and, naturally, a Player of the Match award).
Across all five rounds the overall highest average scorer, by quite some margin, was Kildunne, with an average score of 60.6. Her tournament stats were truly outstanding: top for tries scored (nine), defenders beaten (29), metres carried (866 metres – for context, the second highest was Beibhinn Parsons on 483). Kildunne was unstoppable and for Fantasy Managers was a “set it and forget it” captain option from the very start.
Going position by position, and looking at players with four appearances or more, unsurprisingly Kildunne was on average the highest-scoring back three player with her 60.6 average points per match. In second was Italy’s flyer in the backline, Alyssa D’Inca (37.4 points per match), largely thanks to her three tries, two assists and four breakdown steals). Following D’Inca was Kildunne’s England teammate, Abby Dow (34.6 points per match). Kildunne, D’Inca and Dow were the only three back three players with an average score higher than 25 points.
Into the centres and there were four players with four or more appearances with an average higher than 25, and these were Megan Jones (28.2 points per match – scoring three tries, plus three assists), Beatrice Rigoni (25.8), Gabrielle Vernier (25.6) and Marine Menager (25.5). Fly-half was a relatively low-scoring position, with the highest-scoring fly-half Helen Nelson on 20.2 points per match. Last but not least, scrum-half was also low scoring, with Pauline Bourdon Sansus (16.4) and Natasha Hunt (15.6) leading at nine.
In the forwards, the back row was an extremely fruitful source of points for fantasy managers. On average, the top-scoring back rower was Alex Matthews, who averaged 38 points per match. Matthews consistently delivered throughout the tournament with 60 tackles, 20 defenders beaten, 258 metres carried, three lineout steals, two breakdown steals and two tries. Behind Matthews were four other players that stood out from a fantasy perspective, averaging 25 points or more. These were Aoife Wafer (37.2 points per game – including 415 metres carried, the most of any forward), Romane Menager (28.8 points per game), Alex Callender (27.4 points per game, and the joint-highest tackler in the Championship with 74) and Evie Gallagher (27.2 points per game and the highest number of breakdown steals in the tournament with seven).
In the second row, Zoe Aldcroft was the standout and the only player in that position with four or more appearances to average over 25 points. Aldcroft averaged 33.8 points per match, mainly due to her 72 tackles, 283 metres carried, nine defenders beaten, five lineout steals and two tries.
Into the front row, and there were plenty of try-scoring options, but it was Vecchini who stood out, averaging 28.3 points per game, and this was largely down to her huge score in round two. There were three props who averaged 20 points or more per match, and these were Assia Khalfaoui on 22.2 points per match, Linda Djougang (21.6) and Maud Muir (21).
As the curtain falls on another thrilling Guinness Women’s Six Nations, fantasy rugby managers will look back with pride at their selections, or rue the missed opportunities. Whether it's the try-scoring and attacking brilliance of Ellie Kildunne, the all-round prowess of Alyssa D’Inca, the breakdown excellence of Evie Gallagher, or the hard-carrying of Aoife Wafer, these standout players have etched their names in the hearts of the fantasy managers who backed them this year.
With the insights above, managers can already start thinking ahead as to how they will tackle their selections when the Championship returns in 2025.
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