You’ve already seen Jerry Flannery’s team, now cast your eye over the 15 men Malcolm O’Kelly thinks will lead his side to glory in The Irish Times Fantasy Rugby League.
Their playing days might be behind them at this stage, but if you think that retirement has dulled the competitive instincts of former Irish internationals Malcolm O’Kelly and Jerry Flannery then you’ve got another thing coming.
So far, the lads have found an outlet for that competitive streak in the mostly light-hearted but occasionally edgy Munster v Leinster rivalry in the Hard Yards podcast and now they’ll be trying to get one over each other through the medium of The Irish Times Fantasy Rugby League.
Having been soundly beaten by Jerry in the podcast’s Heineken Cup predictions, Mal has a score to settle and he’s determined that he will not end up second best this time around.
Malcolm has an advantage over Jerry in that he has experience of playing The Irish Times Fantasy Rugby League from last year and his first step was to look to two men who served him during the 2012 tournament.
“I had Wesley Fofana on my team last year and he was my top scorer and go-to man and given what he’s done for club and country since last year’s tournament he was a shoo-in this time around,” Mal told us.
“I’ve also gone for Mike Phillips at scrum-half as he was brilliant for me last season. Even though Ireland lost to Wales last year, I managed to take a little bit of satisfaction from it as Phillips got man of the match, although I shouldn’t really say that, should I?”
Not a bad-looking XV, but will it be good enough to beat Jerry’s team, Fla’s Fantastic Moist Makers
Unlike Jerry’s policy of loading his forwards with back rowers and the backs with those who ply their trade in the back three, Mal’s XV is far closer to a traditional rugby side, although surprisingly for a former second row himself, there are no out and out second rows in his side.
Care to explain Mal?
“Well, nowadays there are so many back rows that can also play as second rows so I’m going to name Sergio Parisse and Louis Picamoles as my default second rows, while I’ve a lot of hopes for Cian Healy as well. When you’re picking front rows for a fantasy team, you look for one who might score a try and Healy is playing out of his skin at the moment and I think he can reproduce that form on the international stage.”
The battle-lines have been drawn, so just how determined is Malcolm to beat Jerry in the Fantasy League and make up for his disappointing Heineken Cup predictions to date?
“Very determined. I’ve been humbled by Jerry in the predictions so I really see this as a great opportunity to level the scoreboard.”
If you haven’t yet entered your team for The Irish Times Fantasy Rugby League, all the info you need to know is here, while we’ve also provided a few tips and some advice on how the stats might help you pick a winning team. As Mal has done, you’ll want to enter the JOE League and the code for that is 32182.
There’s less than 24 hours until both the start of the tournament and the deadline for entry into the league so act fast.
Best of luck!
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
