mlr2025

    Ranger Picks Week 11 form open

    Ranger Picks Week 11 form is open! We do not have results from week 10 yet as we still have matches on Tuesday and Wednesday to get through! Stay tuned for a results post probably on Thursday but definitely before the week 11 form closes on Friday!

    Week 11 includes the 3 matches on Sat 4/26, 2 matches Sun 4/27, and the single match on Wednesday 4/30. So we’ll have a similar situation next week with Week 12 opening before Week 11 is complete.

    Good luck!

    Ranger Picks Week 10

    Week 10 is upon us and it’s a really big week. As mentioned previously, we’re diverting from the MLR week count and including next week’s Tuesday and Wednesday matches in our week 10… which means 7 matches, with 3 teams playing twice in the same week.

    Starting off the week with the back to back reigning MLR champions your New England Free Jacks traveling to Charlotte to take on Anthem RC. An almost unanimous pick of the Free Jacks. Next we hit Chicago traveling to Seattle, currently the best of the East taking on the worst of the West. A perhaps surprisingly low 75% picking Chicago. Saturday sees Miami traveling to Maryland taking on Old Glory we have our first predicted home win. Despite NOLA beating OGDC last week, we have a very strong prediction of Houston taking the home win… and “at home Saturday” wraps up with a closer prediction of the Legion beating the road warriors.

    The mid-week madness matches continue the home win predictions with 80% taking the Free Jacks before an away win prediction for the SeaWolves with almost 60% taking Seattle. Seattle had a late surge in the picks - all week long it was either tied or Anthem taking the slight edge.

    NEFJ @ ARC, CHI @ SEA, MIA @ OGDC. NOLA @ HOU, UTAH @ SDL, LA @ NEFJ.

    Continuing to look at the OG, reigning champ and current leaders:

    OG, Beaver Paw and Week 10 leaders.

    These seem to mostly follow the bigger trend although as a group we’re giving Anthem the nod for Wednesday.

    Good luck everyone!

    Way too Early look at the Way too Early Predictions

    After week 9, the Free Jacks have played 8 of their 16 regular season matches so perhaps it’s time to check in on the way too early predictions?

    For the TJRS outriders predictions, I don’t want to give too much away, but Dave and Phil are tied for the number of correct predictions, with Bozo6 doing 1 better. However, Dave is right on the record (5-3) thus far.

    The Ranger Picks Way Too Early we can take a closer look at.

    The overall record predictions were led by 14-2 which isn’t in the cards now, followed by 12-4 then a tie between 13-3, 11-5, and 10-6. A couple of optimistic 16-0s and a single 0-16 round out the predictions.

    Breakdown of overall record guesses

    In terms of correctly predicting each match, we have 22 picks at .500 or better! 4 have 7 correct! Celta just getting the Chicago match wrong, Ranger Bunny getting the San Diego match wrong, with Bozo6 and Ranger Erikk both incorrectly predicting a win against DC.

    Which leaves Hori Stylz standing alone with 8 correct predictions out of 8 matches played!

    Still anybody’s game!

    Ranger Picks Week 9 Results

    Ranger Payne after mid week madness

    Week 9 came to a close with only 2 matches avoiding upsets! I thought Anthem might actually pull off a win against the current top of the table team… but it wasn’t to be.

    Miami’s defeat of Houston locked the door on any bonus points this week, although we were already down to a handful who’d successfully called the first 2 matches.

    With no bonus points possible, we were down to those who held faith in Utah… so congrats to our Week 9 winners: TBD, Ranger Jules and Ranger Abi! A few more managed to break .500:

    Week 9 leaders.

    A little bit of a shake up at the top of the table. OG Ranger Picks Freejack Fitzy holding strong at the top, but Rugby Morning slipping a little (it wouldn’t be nice to point out that only Chicago kept a 0 off the table, right?).

    Leaders after week 9.

    Week 10 form is open, but we’re entering the “mid week madness” phase of MLR 2025.

    Regardless of how MLR is labelling these matches, we at Ranger Picks are handling weeks from Friday -> Wednesday. There are no Thursday matches fortunately. So Week 10 will stretch from Friday April 18th’s New England Free Jacks @ Anthem Rugby Carolina all the way through Wednesday April 23rd’s Seattle Seawolves @ Anthem Rugby Carolina. So several teams have TWO matches in this week’s Ranger Picks.

    With a Friday night match, I will be closing the form Thursday night. If you’re constantly late (you know who you are), try really hard to get them in early this week!

    Week 11’s form will be opened by next Monday - so week 11 picks will be open before we know results from week 10. “Mid week madness” for all!

    Ranger Picks Week 9

    Ranger Picks Week 9 is here. We have 2 unanimous picks this week.

    Free Jacks are a 3/4s fav to keep the Fort undefeated. Will the freezing rain keep the Legion at bay? The same number of pickers have chosen DC to get over NOLA at the Gold Mine, and then our first unanimous pick for Houston to defeat Miami.

    We have exactly 75% of picks for LA to defeat Utah but the second unanimous pick is Chicago beating Anthem.

    SD @ NE, DC @ NOLA, HOU @ MIA. Utah @ LA, ARC @ CHI.

    Our OG Squad, Leaders and reigning champ are unsurprisingly fairly consistent this week, with just a couple of deviations:

    Leaders after 8, OG and Beaver Paw.

    Bozo6 and UnforgivenPotato taking Utah with everyone else picking LA, Freejack Fitzy taking NOLA against the OGDC consensus and Rugby Morning (Not a Ranger) taking SD over the reigning back to back champions.

    Ranger Picks Week 8 Results

    Another weekend of MLR comes to a close… and what a week! No bonus points this week and only 4 managed 4 correct picks!

    Week 8 winners.

    This has a small shake up in the overall leader table, some more representation from the OG Squad!

    Leaders after Week 8.

    The week 9 form is open, and it starts with the first EVER meeting of the Free Jacks and San Diego in Quincy!

    https://rangerpicks.rugby/week9

    This will be the last week in a while that I’ll be able to be lenient on the form closing time. Week 10 is going to be a crazy week with matches on Friday and we’ll be including the Tuesday and Wednesday matches, so the week 11 form will be open before the week 10 results are in. More on this next week.

    Good luck as always!

    Ranger Picks Week 8

    Ranger Picks presented by TJRS for MLR Week 8 picks are locked in!

    We have a couple of potentially predictable picks and a couple of somewhat surprising picks I think.

    First up we have a close choice between OGDC and Seattle with OGDC gaining the slight edge in popularity.

    Then, I believe for the first time… Anthem RC is the (slight) favorite in their match up over NOLA Gold. I don’t know if this is more of a statement in how our pickers feel about Anthem’s streak of close matches or NOLA’s recent performance?

    Houston is a strong favorite over LA, as is San Diego over Chicago. I’m a little surprised it’s not a closer call for either of these matches.

    And finally, for the first time in a long time (also perhaps the first time? I’m not tracking these)… we have a 100% of our pickers predicting reigning back to back MLR champions, your New England Free Jacks staying undefeated at home and taking care of the Miami Sharks! I hope we are right!

    Our OG Squad, reigning champ and leaders picked roughly in proportion to the overall picks.

    Good luck everyone!

    Seattle @ DCNOLA @ ARCLA @ HOU

    CHI @ SDMIA @ NEFJ

    Top picks

    Ranger Picks Week 7 Results

    MLR Week 7 is done and dusted. Judging by only 3 Bonus Point picks this week, I’m going to assume that means several upsets and not just zigs failing to zag.

    Congrats to Ranger Kathy, Ranger Horkan and Uncle Philly!

    Week 7 leaders.

    Rugby Morning has managed to eke out a lead over Pingree Panthers, but there’s still plenty of rugby left this season!

    Top 10 after week 7.

    Talking of plenty of rugby left to come, I was able to get to the WER Boston Banshees home opener this weekend - an amazing turnout, excellent rugby and the rain mostly held off! Not bad for under the lights in March in New England.

    Week 8 picks are now open. Good luck!

    Ranger Picks Week 7

    Welcome one and all to Ranger Picks week 7! The pickers are still at it, will we get a record breaking bonus point round? (No idea - that’s not a record I’m tracking!)

    The Hounds are strong favorites to win in NOLA, but the first surprise this week is that Houston is slightly favored to break the Legion’s win streak!

    Hounds @ NOLA and Legion @ Houston.

    Anthem has recovered some of the support it lost last week - perhaps supported by MLR Stats pointing out the momentum they have with just an average of -2 over the last 3 matches. Seattle are still favored, but Anthem has more support than NOLA for as much as that’s worth.

    Anthem @ Seattle and NEFJ @ Utah.

    NEFJ have lost some of their support from the heavily New England based rangers - Utah is a slight favorite here, with the same support as RFC LA has over OGDC

    OGDC @ RFCLA.

    How did our OG squad, reigning champ Beaver Paw and co-leader Pingree Penguins pick? A clean sweep for Chicago; almost exactly split between San Diego and Houston; just me hoping for Anthem to pull out their first win (even at Starfire); almost exactly split between RFC LA and OGDC… but shockingly a heavy expectation for Utah to triumph over the back to back champions, with only Beaver Paw and myself holding strong.

    Good luck as always!

    Ranger Picks Week 6 Results

    Week 6 results are in, with 5 bonus point picks and 11 missing out by just one match! Huge week for many, but I continue to miss out on the correct picks :/

    Week 6 leaders.

    Some shake up at the top with Pingree Panthers and Rugby Morning taking over the top spot… and to the chagrin of many, Bozo6 entering the top 10:

    Top 10 after week 6.

    Week 7 form is open. Good luck!

    Ranger Picks Week 6

    Ranger Picks Week 6 is upon us.

    With about 3/4s picking NE Free Jacks over OGDC, the Leader/OG/Beaver Paw picks table might have some surprises. More split decision with RFC LA @ NOLA Gold with LA picking up a slight edge.

    NEFJ @ OGDC and LA @ NOLA.

    Anthem seems to have lost the support it had from our pickers… with Houston expecting to pick up a win despite some close matches recently. Something I wouldn’t have expected to see this time last year… almost 3/4s of our picks are for Utah picking up a win at Starfire over Seattle!

    HOU @ ARC and Utah @ SEA.

    I think it’s fair to say that it’s no surprise that SD Legion is a big favorite especially at home over Miami.

    Once more I’ve combined the picks from the leader table, reigning champ Beaver Paw and the OG team into one table:

    Leaders as of week 5 and Beaver Paw and OG.

    Ranger Picks Week 5 Results

    Week 5 results are in, and did you all see or hear the crowd at Fort Quincy? A mid-March match in New England brought out one of the biggest regular season crowds! No doubt helped by the unseasonal weather, but still.

    We have 7 perfect picks this week

    Week 5 show offs.

    Overall Free Jack Fitzy is leading the way with 2 bonus points pulling him ahead of Pingree Panthers and Rugby Morning with the same number of correct picks just not in the right weeks :)

    Leaders after week 5.

    TJRS Ranger Picks Week 6 form is open. Good luck!

    Ranger Picks Week 5

    The picks are in, and I’m super excited for the NEFJ home opener, especially after attending the Championship Banner unveiling at Boston Logan Airport’s Hall of Champions!

    Interesting pattern this week: The first 2 matches are heavily favored for the home teams this week with over 90% of pickers selecting them.

    OGDC @ Chi and NOLA @ NEFJ.

    The final 2 matches this week are almost flipped - a little more uncertainty but the away teams are clear favorites.

    Utah @ Mia and Sea @ LA.

    I combined the OG team, Beaver Paw and the leaders into one table this week. They fairly closely resemble the votes of everyone else - favoring Chicago, NEFJ, Utah and Seattle

    Leaders and Beaver Paw and OG.

    Ranger Picks Week 4 results

    Week 4 results are in, and after a late night and losing an hour the keyboard monkeys employed here at Ranger Picks HQ have crunched the numbers and have the results!

    Only 1 person achieved the always important bonus point this week, and I expect we’ll hear about it in a certain news letter in the morning… Congrats Rugby Morning!

    8 other pickers managed to get 4 out of 5: Week 4 results.

    which keeps the top of the table ever moving:

    Ranger list after week 4.

    Onwards to Week 5 - the form is open: https://rangerpicks.rugby/week5

    Ranger Picks Week 4

    Here comes week 4. Late with this update again… yikes, once more and it’ll be a habit!

    Apparently, Anthem impressed pickers with their near miss last week - they’re still underdogs, but they have the same number of picks as Houston and Seattle, and more than Miami and LA!

    Chi @ mia and ARC @ ogdc. Hou @ utah and la @ sd.

    The OG Squad and reigning champ Beaver Paw’s picks (missing Ranger Bunny!!) are reasonably consistent. A couple of looks at Houston and Seattle but otherwise unanimously for Chicago, DC and San Diego:

    Og and beaver paw.

    Some more chaos in the picks from the current leaders though!

    Leader picks.

    Ranger Picks Week 3 results

    Week 3 is in the bag! I think we only saw one upset, and that was the final match of the week. The upset I was hoping for did not happen, although Anthem looked really promising for most of their match up against Miami. While that robbed a some rangers from a bonus point, it did open the door to 4 bonus points:

    Week 3 top results.

    Which has had the knock on effect of some turnover at the top of the leader table:

    Leaders as of week 3.

    Week 4 form is live: https://rangerpicks.rugby/week4

    This form will close on Thursday!

    Ranger Picks Week 3

    Sneaking in the update just before the first match of the week, here’s how Ranger Picks for Week 3 shape up!

    Unsurprisingly, Miami is a huge favorite over Anthem… spoiler for later but I’m one of the few picking Anthem… this is their best shot at a first win, but I picked before their lineup was released so take that for what it’s worth!

    The Legion is also favored over OGDC even with the long travel and the injuries they picked up last week.

    MIA @ ARC and SDL @ OGDC.

    Utah impressed Ranger Pickers with their dominance over Chicago last week and are expected to beat NOLA. I’m a little surprised that Seattle is ranked as high as they are against Houston even with Houston’s slower than expected start.

    NOLA @ UTAH and SEA @ HOU.

    Finally the Free Jacks are expected to continue their march towards a three-peat, traveling to Chicago and picking up a win.

    Taking a look at how our leader board picked, they’re all very similar. I see where all the Seattle picks came from though!

    Leader picks.

    Taking a look at the OG squad with the addition of last year’s champ, you’ll see my Anthem pick… we’re split 50/50 on SD vs DC… and that’s not a typo - Rugby Morning picked NEFJ but FreeJackFitzy is taking a swing and picking Chicago!

    OG and Beaver Paw.

    Ranger Picks Week 2 results

    Week 2 results are in!

    Another week, another week with no bonus points for Ranger Picks. Despite this being an upset week for many of us, the zigs paid of for Beaver Paw and Ranger Bunny, who joined only a few others in getting 3 out of 4 correct:

    Week 2 top picks.

    This means several players join Rugby Morning and Ranger Abi at the front of the table, with no bonus points for tie breaks:

    Week 2 leader board.

    Week 3 form is open: https://rangerpicks.rugby/week3. Please try to use the same email and Ranger Name each week.

    Week 3 form WILL close on Thursday.

    Good luck as always!

    MLR 2025 Ranger Picks Week 2

    Week 2 is just hours away from starting, and of course we have a round up of picks.

    Unsurprisingly, the Legion is a massive favorite over Anthem after dominating Seattle last week. 71% of pickers have NOLA triumphing over Miami, only 15% think that Utah can beat Chicago in the windy city’s home opener. The closest to a toss up is 60% favoring Houston over LA.

    The OG Squad, last year’s winner Beaver Paw, and current (tied) leader Ranger Abi’s picks are below. Big swings for Bozo6 with Utah over Chicago and LA over Houston - no doubt hoping to recover from only 2 points last week. Beaver Paw and Bunny taking a smaller swerve with Miami over NOLA.

    OG, Beaver Paw and Ranger Abi.

    Legion @ Anthem and NOLA @ Miami. Warriors @ Hounds and Sabercats @ LA.

    Last and final reminder to get Ranger Picks Week 2 picks in!

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