After all, there are plenty of lessons to be learnt from this year's intense Guinness Women's Six Nations action.
Inevitably, however, when March 2025 comes around, we will forget everything and revert back to the norm. So in an effort to help our future fantasy playing selves, here’s a selection of lessons from the 2024 Championship to be remembered for next year:
Lesson 1 – Always Captain Kildunne!
By round five, it was something that we were all acutely aware of, but if you needed any convincing, Ellie Kildunne is the ultimate “set it and forget it” captain option in the game. Her fantasy game performance in 2024 is already the stuff of legend, the list of her achievements endless:
· The highest-scoring player in the fantasy game (303 points)
· Recipient of the highest single fantasy score in one round (126 points)
· Recipient of the highest number of Player of the Match awards (three)
· Top try-scorer (nine)
· Highest metres carried (866 metres)
· Highest number of defenders beaten (29)
You get the idea, but this is just scraping the surface of her achievements in 2024. If fit and available in 2025, Kildunne is a no-brainer for your captain.
Lesson 2 – Supersub Strategy is key
Supersub was an ongoing battle for fantasy managers over the course of the tournament. By the end, the strategy was pretty clear: focus on forwards, especially hookers, back rowers and second rowers. The two outstanding options were Connie Powell and Cliodhna Moloney.
Powell delivered consistently off the bench from round one to round two. Once she was reinstalled to the Ireland squad, Moloney also had two great weeks off the bench. The temptation to select a back three player as supersub was always there, but there were regular stories of fantasy manager pain with players only getting five minutes or fewer off the bench - or, in some cases, getting no minutes at all! Next year, play it safe with a forward.
Lesson 3 – Don’t just look to tries for points
When selecting a fantasy team, the temptation is to always go with the high try-scorers, but there is huge fantasy points potential in the players that deliver some of the more unsung jobs on the field. Those who regularly deliver breakdown steals, lineout steals and tackles always bring in the high scores. You only have to look at the likes of Alex Callender (highest number of tackles in the tournament with 74, and an average fantasy score per round of 27.4), Zoe Aldcroft (second highest number of lineout steals with five, and an average fantasy score of 33.8) and Evie Gallagher (highest number of breakdown steals with seven and an average fantasy score of 27.2). Next year, look to more than just the try-scorers for your points.
Lesson 4 – Prioritise Back Rows, Centres and Back Threes
Looking at the average scores by position, certain positions seem to score higher than others. This has big implications as to where you should invest your stars and who to select as your captain.
The most consistent high scorers can be found in the back row, centre and back three positions. Looking at players who made four or more appearances, seven back rowers scored on average over 25 points, four centres averaged 25 or more, while a trio of back three players scored 25 or more per match on average.
On the flip side, there were no fly-halves, scrum-halves or props playing four matches or more who averaged over 25 points. Hooker and second row saw some outliers in Zoe Aldcroft and Vittoria Vecchini, but apart from these two, there was nobody else in this position averaging over 25.
From this we can establish that the safest captain route is via the back row, centre or back three.
Lesson 5 – The Player of the Match is the key to a huge game week
The player awarded the official Guinness Women’s Six Nations Player of the Match brings in a very healthy 15 bonus points, and this has made a big impact as part of the overall scoring. Looking at the top three scorers in every week of the Championship in 2024, 10 of the 15 were also recipients of the Player of the Match award.
If you are able to predict the Player of the Match it provides a huge advantage. However, looking at this year’s Player of the Match winners - Ellie Kildunne x3; Madoussou Fall; Coreen Grant; Romane Menager; Rosie Galligan; Vittoria Vecchini; Aoife Wafer; Assia Khalfaoui; Lana Skeldon; Annaelle Deshaye; Gwenllian Pyrs; Brittany Hogan; and Alex Matthews) there weren’t many trends to be found among the winners.
Your best bet? Pick a great side packed with top-class players with a proven track record at international level, and hope for the best.
So there you go: five lessons that all of us need to remember for next year's fantasy selections. Bring on round one of 2025!
