As any avid rugby fan knows Test match rugby can be a far cry from the glitz and glamour of the Super 12 but not nearly as different as Fantasy Test Rugby, with it's new offense-friendly rules, is to the defense-dominated Super 12 FR season!

I for one am really happy with the rule changes, they really make the flying outside backs, crashing mid-fielders and cheeky half-backs highly valuable fantasy contributors and subsequently the team managers job all the more difficult.

Let's take a look at how these new rules helped out one of Rugby's biggest names make a splash in the Fantasy Rugby realm.

Many who watched the NZ vs Tonga match on Friday night will have noted with surprise that Jonah Lomu didn't manage to get into the scoring action despite his team scoring 15 tries in the match and the Tongan's struggling mightly on defence.

Under the old rules this performance would have netted the big fella an under-whelming big fat 0 points, as his two Tackles Made were cancelled out by his two Turnovers Lost. Instead, with the addition of the new Beat Defender stat, Jonah posted a very healthy 48 points (which incidentally is almost as much as he scored in his two best Super 12 games COMBINED!).

In the match Jonah Beat Defenders 16 times, thats one more than Flavell, Cullen, Howlett and Umaga managed between them, and those 4 guys scored 8 tries! Imagine if Jonah had managed to tack a couple of tries (now worth 15 fantasy points) on the end of some of his blockbusting runs? Surely the Scots won't be so lucky....

So if you hadn't appreciated the effect of the new rules at the start of round one try to take advantage of them for round two. In a one-sided match (and two of this weekends three matches definitely fit that category) the potential offensive points on offer out-weigh the defensive ones, put your money on Black and you should be sweet. That is, as long as you wait for the starting lineups before using those precious transfers! We will try and post the lineups at Rugbyheads as soon as they come to hand.