https://fantasy.superleague.co.uk/howtoplay
Rules at the bottom. Bench gets you no points in the event of a player in your starting line-up being injured/suspended, like you get in the Premier League version.
A few points from me:
1. The WCC and Vegas 'dilemma'
Hull KR play in the WCC and have a blank weekend in R2, so no KR players will score points then head for Vegas. While I want to have the full quota of 3 KR players in my team, you have 4 transfers each month so could well be using 3 transfers in R2 to take out the KR players and then potentially using 3 in R3, the first week of March, and then running the risk of having 1 transfer for the remainder of the month, a risk should your player's get injured/suspended. You could have some decent options on your bench to switch in for the KR players in your team for week 2 and I would look towards Wakefield (vs Huddersfield), Leeds (v York) and Castleford (vs Toulouse) players for that week.
Warrington also have the blank week in R2, though with their start including Saints, Cas, Wakefield, Leeds and Leigh in the opening 6 rounds and with the pressure around Sam Burgess, I'm avoiding their players until we know if they've improved on 2025.
Vegas is still in its infancy for English clubs and we have such a small sample size to go off but Wigan lost 2 of their next 3 post-Vegas last year and Warrington followed up their awful Vegas performance by getting beat. On paper, KR should have enough post-Vegas to beat Huddersfield and Leeds have Cas, who look improved on paper compared with 2025.
2. Fixture Difficulty
Its pure guesswork, I know, but I'm looking at the early fixtures to try and see who has easier fixtures, in the hope that my predictions are correct and players from these teams do well in these perceived easier games from a fantasy point scoring point of view.
Wigan have 8 games in the opening 10 rounds that didn't reach the play-offs in 2025 or weren't even in Super League last year - Castleford, Hull FC, Toulouse, York, Huddersfield, Castleford (again), Warrington and Bradford. Hull KR have 7 of their first 9 against sides who didn't reach the finals last year or were in the Championship, Wakefield only have all three promoted sides, Huddersfield, Cas, Hull FC and Warrington in their opening 8 rounds and Leeds have York, Cas, Hull FC, Warrington, Bradford, Huddersfield and Catalans in their opening 9 rounds.
Equally, Saints have all 5 teams who made it to the finals in 2025 inside the opening 9 rounds and Catalans which has been a bogey ground for us over the years. We do have all three promoted sides, Warrington (though they haven't beaten Wire since 2023) and Hull FC, so that is going to have to be considered. Leigh start off with Leeds, Saints and Wigan in the opening 3 rounds, if they get off to a great start in those, they'll take some stopping but that's a tough start.
3. Value Picks
You can't go for a team of players worth 150k+ and to utilise the money you have available, you need to find some value players, a task easier said than done.
Tom Whitehead at KR has earnt rave reviews from his coaches and peers and the original plan for KR to loan him out has been scrapped and at 80k, he interests me. Cas have signed Tom Weaver from Titans/Q Cup and he started in their pre-season friendly with Saints and I assume he will start at 7 against Doncaster in the cup ahead of R1 and at 50k, he looks a real gem, the Wigan pair of Tom Forber (80k) and Zack Eckersley (90k) look like getting a lot more first-team game time in 2026, the 90k Cai Taylor-Wray at Warrington seems to have got the nod at 1 and I suspect Harvie Hill will play a bigger role at Hull FC than at Wigan and at 100k, he may be a steal.
