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Where is Caleb Clarke?

In 2024, Caleb Clarke led the Super Rugby in linebreaks and metres gained, was top three in tries scored, top five in carries, and sixth in defenders beaten. He’ll be among the first athletes many fans check the price of.

You won’t find the star Blues winger in the system, though. Players were given the option to opt out of being involved in the game, and Clarke to do so.

He was one of four players to take that option due to personal reasons, alongside Highlanders prop Sefo Kautai, and Moana Pasifika duo Tuna Tuitama and Jonathan Taumateine.

“Players are an important part of Fantasy Super Rugby Pacific, and we are thrilled that so many players opted in for our first year, with over 420 opting in. Four players from across the competition decided not to opt in and we support their decision,” a Super Rugby Pacific spokesperson said.

First impressions

Developed by Genius Sports, the same developers of Fantasy Rugby World Cup 2023 and the NRL Fantasy products, it’s an easy selection system to get your head around, with fans able to search players by team, position, or simply by typing their name into the search bar. There is, however, no app for the game so teams will have to be managed via desktop or your phone’s internet browser. It’s not the end of the world, but an app does make life easier.

Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley confirmed to the Herald last week that an app was not part of the plan for this year: “Just through the website at the moment but it links through all of our different channels.”

Fans will get unlimited transfers to use throughout the season, which will be a divisive point. Having a limited number of trades to use can make the game more strategic, with fans having to think a lot more about when they make their moves, whereas unlimited transfers mean anyone who is willing to dedicate the time to it can stack their team of players with friendly match-ups every week. That makes building an initial team far less strategic unless you’re just looking to set and forget.

The system does not have last season’s stats loaded into it a la Fantasy Premier League, which means fans have to do a little bit of work if they want to base their squad on stats.

Players are not locked for the round until their team’s game begins, so this also allows for last-minute transfers on late withdrawals from the match-day squad without punishment of burning a move.

The single-round boosters are interesting – with co-captains (two players score double points for the game week), triple captain (three times the points from your captain as opposed to double), and limitless budget – and bring the element of strategy into play. The usual starting budget is $100 million.

These boosters can only be used once each season, and you can only play one booster at a time.

The system will have clear indications of which players are selected or not, on the bench or injured for each game week, which will help with squad selections.

Fans select a standard squad of 15. With no cap on transfers, there is also no need for a bench as fans can just switch players in and out as they please before a lockout. Players are only available in one position, with no dual-position players in the system despite players such as Cullen Grace often spending time at both lock and loose forward during the season.

One thing the platform lacks this year is a draft league option. It’s disappointing as a draft can be a more fun way of playing the game as it means players can only be on one team in the league. Plus, drafts – be it an auction or snake (picking in a set order, which reverses for each round of selections) – are just fun.

In the open format, teams are forced to find point-of-difference players to put around the game’s stars – and given there are unlimited transfers for the whole season, it won’t be hard to find a way to get the highest-scoring players into your team.

It’s a tidy, user-friendly offering to start with, but it leaves room for further development in future seasons.

Attack is the name of the game

Among the 27 metrics in Fantasy Super Rugby, 13 are attacking (goal-kicking included), four are defensive, four are disciplinary, four are set piece-based and two are for time played.

Of those metrics, the highest-scoring ones are 15 points for a try, nine for a try assist, and seven for a linebreak. The next highest is five points for each linebreak assist, interception and lineout steal. At the other end of the scale, a red card is –10 points, with a yellow being –5.

First five-eighths Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett are the most expensive players in the game at 10 credits each.

A reminder

A team has a bye each week. It’s the Reds in week one, so if you’ve got any of them in mind, you’ll have to wait until week two to bring them in.

- NZ Herald