Think you know your rugby? Well then prove it and potentially cash in on your rugby knowledge by pitting yourself against fellow rugby fanatics in The Irish Times Fantasy Rugby League.
The Six Nations is nearly upon us and although that in itself is very exciting, rugby fans can enhance their enjoyment of the tournament by channelling the Joe Schmidt inside and putting together a dream team of 15 players made up from the six competing nations.
Entry to the league won’t cost you a cent and if you’re good enough, your knowledge and ability to make the tough calls will be rewarded through the €9,000 prize pool, with the winner taking home a cool €4,000, €3,000 for the runner-up and a not-too-shabby two grand for whoever claims the bronze medal.
Furthermore, there will be special prizes on offer for the best full-time primary or secondary school students in the schools league. Before anyone gets any notions, this isn’t like pretending to be a student to get in cheap through the turnstiles, thorough checks will be conducted to make sure that there’s no deviousness at hand so unless you’re young enough to wear a school uniform, don’t even go there.
Setting up a team is easy. Simply log onto the
Fantasy Rugby League on The Irish Times website and select a 15-man team (eight forwards, one scrumhalf, one outhalf and five outside backs) from the six competing nations (maximum three players from any one team)
before 2.30pm on Saturday 1 February, the deadline for the first round of Six Nations matches.
In fact, there's an even greater incentive to register as soon as possible, because any managers who select their team before
23:59 (Irish Time) on Saturday 25th January will be entered into a draw to win two tickets to watch
Ireland v Wales at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, February 8.
Players will be rewarded for appearances, tries scored, tries assisted, drop goals scored and man of the match awards and deducted for anyone who steps out of line and cops a yellow or red card.
Managers must select a kicker prior to each game and only that player will be rewarded for any penalties or conversions kicked. In other words, don’t go selecting Mike Ross as your kicker as although we're sure Mike can nail tough kicks from the sidelines when it suits him, he won't be doing it in a green jersey so there's no point.
If your charges aren’t performing up to scratch early doors, not to worry, managers can make a total of five transfers between every round. That’s 20 in total throughout the competition, so much like the Irish team in last season's competition, the team that finishes the competition could well be barely recognisable from the team that started it.
We love a bit of competition here at JOE and we're allowing readers to test themselves against the ‘experts’ in the JOE office – we use the term incredibly loosely – as well as friends of the site Jerry Flannery and Malcolm O’Kelly, who will be picking their own teams again this year and looking to improve on their sub-par performances this time around.
The code for the JOE League is
51898 but we must insist that anyone who wants to join has to have their team registered by the February 1 deadline mentioned above to be in the mix; last year we had to turn away nearly 100 managers who tried to register after the deadline and couldn't compete with the 500 or so teams that made up the JOE League, with Justin Gouldsbury coming out on top at the end.
We'll be back with some tips on team selection between now and the start of the tournament but for now that’s about all you need to know, so get on over to
The Irish Times website and let the games begin.
