OG LEAGUE 2020 – ROUND 5

The second installment of this mini-seasons OG League is here! With no changes to the Sunday night scores with later updates yet, we have decided to back that these scores will be final. Last week Nabung, Newbung, Wylie and Nelson all bagged wins. A special shout out to Nelson who knocked off his brother Harry by 21 points to end a 12 game losing run!

Trade Night Rd 3

More huge names dropped this week as all our managers scrapped to field starting sides. Hoskins Sotutu, Reece Hodge, Wes Goosen, and Asafo Aumua just to name a few!

Round 4 Fixtures:

Where my Hosea At (424) vs (481) Peri Peri Chicken
Nelson (4) vs Wylie (5)
This match-up was always going to mainly affect the loser, ramping up the pressure on one of these mid-table managers. Both managers made 5 trades to ensure they'd give themselves every chance, and it showed as they scored the 2nd and 3rd highest scores of the round. Nelson will leave this week absolutely gutted he still hasn't learned to play the man. Despite Caleb Clarke (53 points) finally delivering, and solid support from Rob Valetini (49) and Trevor Hosea (41), his respectable outing falls 26 points short of an attacking bonus point, and 7 points short of a losing BP.
On the other hand, Wylie went big where it wasn't expected. Finlay Christie (65 points) scored a double, and a man that Nelson traded to Wylie earlier in the season, Fergus Lee-Warner (62) continued his huge run of scores. Once you add in Akira Ioane (57) and Irae Simone (50), it's no wonder the result fell the way it did. Wylie now jumps to a career-high 3rd on the table, while Nelson drops to an all too familiar 7th, needing to win his last two games to be a realistic chance of avoiding playing for yet another wooden spoon.

Ride My Pone (266) Vs (331) Chrissy's No Name XV
Nsync (6) vs Newbung(8)
Nsync is the perfect example of what happens when you take a trade night off. Even though it was three weeks ago, it's meant he is scrambling to field any trash he can to field a full side. His five new men scoring a total of 59 points this week. Shout out to Matt Toomua (40 points) who was his only reasonable player. This week's loss now locks him in as our first manager playing for the spoon.
Newbung knew this was likely his only chance to bag an easier win, so he took advantage by holding TJ Perenara & Wes Goosen on their bye, fielding a team with only 14 men. Jordan Uelese (55 points) had his best game of the season, while Jock Campbell (53), Allan Alaalatoa (50), and Jono Lance (40) scored the bulk of his team's points. Despite scoring the second-lowest score of the week, he played the man to perfection to bag four easy points, pushing him up into the top half of the table.

Rieking BLAM Havoc 2.0 (Grubs Edition) (384) Vs (414) 2 out of 3 ain't Barrett
Nabung (3) vs AJ (7)
Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Last week Nabung fielded 13 men and suffered a heavy defeat, so this week he responded by fielding 13 men and.... well you know the rest. On a positive note, Ofa Tu'ungafasi (54 points) is in career-best form, while Tom Banks (46), Josh Ioane (43), and George Bridge (42) are all contributing solidly as you'd expect. In the end, his lack of forward planning and some rough luck is probably what cooked him, leaving him far too much to do come trade night. Surely now staring down the barrel of a possible loser's finals series, he'll start making some manager to manager trades so that he can field a full 15.
Sitting in 7th place with only two wins heading into this one, you could have forgiven AJ for heavily shuffling his deck in search of a winning combination. Despite this, he made the least trades of the week (3), including the great choice of picking a reserve Crusaders back, Fainga'anuku, who bagged him a late try. Folau Fainga'a (57 points) scored yet another double to top score for AJ, while Nick Frost (45) was the only other player to make a significant contribution. This one shows just how close this competition is with AJ jumping from 7th to 4th with only two rounds to play.

Damian McKenzie XV (532) Vs (413) King Richard's First XV
Harry (2) vs Cargie (1)
Any top of the table clash is a big occasion, but when the two managers have heads as big as these two, they'll insist we write that it was a clash of the Drafting Titans. Harry chargers clearly understood the stakes, a win and you're all but locked in for the finals, a loss and you're back with the pack. Harry Wilson (79 points) lead the week's fantasy stats and his team to the biggest score of the week on the back of 14 runs and 20 tackles. New man Dane Zander (55) had a huge game playing the full 80, while Lachlan Boshier (52) and Pita Gus Sowakula (43) basically carried the entire Chiefs team along with them.
Cargie built his season run by picking players with the least byes. How then he fielded a team of only 12 players is lost on me, especially when of those is Tom Pincus (1). Despite taking this week very easily on his rival, his Crusaders trio of Richie Mo'unga (68 points), Codie Taylor and Will Jordan (60) went absolutely berserk yet again. It's just a Shame that no one else went with them. I'm fully expecting Cargie to go on a trading rampage this week to stack his team with many more of the championship side. Despite the loss, Cargie holds onto a spot in the top two off the back of his superior for and against, but there's no doubt he will need to win at least one of his remaining games against AJ or Nelson.

Extra Facts:

Best Player: Harry Wilson 79 points (Harry)
Worst Player: Andrew Kellaway -8 points (Nsync)
Best Supersub: Nil
Best Free Agent: Angus Scott-Young 52 points
Biggest Coaching Mistake (player left on the bench): Tom Sanders 51pts was left riding the pine instead of Tevin Ferris 1pts (Wylie)

Team Scores Round 5:

The Table:

Round 6 Fixtures:

Written by your local rugby nerd Harrison Dale.