Rugby World

Rugby world comes with the 6 Nations & Heineken Cup teams of 2006

We have taken the 5/6 system used in the very popular soccer simulation 'The Beautiful Game', and adapted it for use in this quick-playing Rugby Union sim. Users of 'BG' will notice many similarities but there are differences too, mostly brought about because of the very different ways that soccer and rugby matches develop. We have retained the Chance and Half-Chance Card concepts although those expressions are hardly relevant to Rugby Union. Maybe we could have used the terms 'Dangerous Attacks' and 'Possible Scoring Situations' instead, but the end result is the same.

The main problem we had in using the 5/6 system for rugby was the need to have many more Match Cards to reflect the higher number of 'scores' in a rugby match. That has required a re-think of the Timing system and also caused us some difficulty in ensuring that both low- and high-scoring matches are possible. (Using 35-plus Match Cards as against nine or ten in 'BG' means that the law of averages begins to kick-in and the number of Match Cards 'activated' by a 5 or 6 roll is pretty predictable, unlike the situation in 'BG'.) We solved this by using a 'time-slip' whereby a 4/4 roll uses up 10 minutes of time compared to the usual 1 or 2 minutes - a couple of 'time-slips' can produce a low-scoring match. Our research also discovered that rugby teams tend not to be strong defensively or offensively (in terms of points conceded and scored) on a consistent basis, it is more their overall strength and that of the opposition that sets the benchmark for scoring rates in a match. That, and the weather and ground conditions, which do have a lot of influence in terms of overall points scored in a match. With around 45% of points scored by the boot rather than the hand windy and muddy conditions will make goal-kicking much more difficult and reduce overall match point totals.

All this led us to settle for a match system that used a simple timing chart to decide the length of each half (and this is the same for every match, so playing time for every match is very similar) rather than working all the way through the Match Card Pack as you do in 'BG'. This can result in some Match Cards not being used at all, or in some cases the Match Card Pack has to start a second run through. That really doesn't matter, as the percentage of Cards for each team, which reflects their respective strengths, continues to influence the outcome.

Playing time per match is around 8-10 minutes, nearly twice that as in 'BG', but we found no way of reducing it below that sort of figure while still retaining the sort of detail which most of you seem to enjoy.