Hurricanes Kovana Solosolo Jonty Rhodes Chris Smith Jason Denton Yeeb Siege Morgan Leumas Himann Jono Chewie Jesse Harding Chad Dyer Girve Swervington Ed Ames Gareth Weaver Chris Warrington Alistair Son Subs Jaspreet Singh Mister Fourex Tool Man Bosh Burger Brian Quilty Simon Nova Chris Ardley Immortals Ben Storer Alan Izett Jonny Ridd Heath Davis James Torres Michael Chung Charlie Downes Marcuss Deane Fourie van der Westhuizen Matt James Matt Dorn Haydos Bots Bobby Blunder Lucas Schaw Jordan Logan Subs Dave Eggman Callum Laing Dexter Astele Nick Scott Geoff Smith Ali Farhat Alex Mediocre Odds Hurricanes: $2.09 Immortals: $1.61 Insight The two starting line-ups aren't unreasonably matched. Not huge amounts between them, though on balance the Immortals have a small advantage. The front rows here are relatively even. Izett has the better pedigree of the hookers, but Rhodes was developing strongly at the tail end of S5. The 2nd row has a clear advantage to the Immortals with Yeeb untried at this level. The Hurricanes back-row is easily underrated, but Morgan-Himann-Chewie is a pretty solid grouping that certainly looks first-grade standard. The Chung-Laing-Deane triumvirate from Spartans history is finally broken up as Charlie Downes gets a look in ahead of Laing. Downes has had decent bench minutes and performances in the past, but can he bring that quality against fresh legs at the start of a match? In the back line is where the Hurricanes start to come to the fore. Harding at half-back is a weak option, but also coming up against first-grade rookie van der Westhuizen. Dyer is a solid utility playing here at first five and should have the skin on Matt James, who looks to be out of his depth here. Sadly for Immortals fans, the backup to James looks so wafer thin as to be non-existent, so if there are problems in the pivots, then there's no backup on the bench. In the centres, the experienced pairing of Ames-Weaver will face a much more interesting and untried combo in the Immortals of Bots-Blunder. Blunder has been world class for too long to remember at full back, but with the Immortals signing Jordan Logan, Blunder gets a run in the centres. Bots is the ultimate utility and hasn't really shown much at first grade, but perhaps a new team will give him the impetus to break through. The outside backs look well matched, though the mercurial Swervington against the equally mercurial Schaw would give any defense fan nightmares. Where the Immortals start to boss the odds though is the bench strength. The Hurricanes have no quality backup and whilst the Immortals are lacking in the pivots, being able to bring on Dave Eggman, Callum Laing or Geoff Smith - all first grade quality players should give them some additional power in the 2nd stanza. Expectation: Immortals by 7.
Would've thought the Immortals would be way stronger. Though the pivots look a big liability for the Immortals. Being a Gambler, I should know about the risk of having shit halves
Was pretty tempting to let the Trojans have Jake Luffman available. Didn't think it'd be reasonable when he'd still be better than the Immortals first choice first-five though.
Probably for the best, given at this point an equivalent situation can happen for pretty much every team.
It's kind of funny that the average fly half in this sim has such low depth compared to some other roles.
"Fourie van der Westhuizen is like Regan Hutchinson going out for a long night walk under Girl A's window" Holy fuck
So yeah, a score in it early but Canes never really in the hunt in the second half. Immortals dominated territory from a quick look.