Rugby Manager game

[Scrumhead]

I’ve played Football Manager for years and I’ve always wanted a rugby equivalent. Out of boredom, I was thinking about what the player ‘attributes’ would need to look like for rugby and it’s actually pretty tricky.

I came up with the following, but I’d be curious to get some input on what others think:

General (Backs and Forwards):

Pace
Acceleration
Agility
Stamina
Strength
Technique
Decisions
Leadership
Passing
Tackling
Ball Carrying*
Breakdown**
Ruck

Forwards:

Scrummaging
Lineout***
Breakdown
Maul

Backs:

Kicking from hand
Kicking at goal
Aerial****

There were a few areas I struggled with, hence the asterisks:

* In reality, a good carrier can mean a lot of different things, so it’s hard to capture in one attribute because a good tight carrier is different to someone hitting good lines a bit further out or a back with good footwork. I came to the conclusion that one carrying attribute is best, but would work in tandem with other stats like agility, pace, acceleration and strength. For example, a good heavy carrier in the forwards would probably have a combination of high scores for acceleration, strength and carrying while an outside back might have high scores for acceleration, pace and agility.

** This is hard to define, but by splitting out ruck and maul, I take breakdown to mostly mean turnovers. I’ve put this in the ‘general’ stats as some backs are very good over the ball.

*** Lineout was another tricky one. I thought one lineout stat would capture the hooker’s throwing and lock/back row jumpers’ ability. I wasn’t sure how to capture calling the lineout?

**** Aerial was the best word I could find to describe dealing with a high ball. Obviously I’d expect outside backs to score more highly in this area, but I’d say someone like Biggar is a good example of someone who would also score highly here.

In an ideal world, I’d have 15 attributes scored out of 20 for a total score out of 300 but I found it hard to do ...

Probably just a useless waste of brain space, but I found it interesting and would be keen to get people’s opinions and anything I’m missing.

[jimKRFC]

Often thought we need a rugby manager game! Tried a few on my phone and they're mostly rubbish (actually play rugby manager 2).

Line out definitely needs three categories - throwing, jumping and lifting.

Support play would need a stat as well for the sort of player that's always on hand to take the pass.

Aerial would be kick recieving wouldn't it? With calmness and technique as co-factors for dealing with the catches under pressure.

[Stom]

There's an online rugby management game called Blackout Rugby. The stats there are Stamina, Handling, Attack, Defence, Technique, Strength, Speed, Agility, Jumping, and Kicking.

I've also previously been involved in trying to make one. It can be tough to get the players to act in the right way based on several attributes at once.

So, for instance, a line break isn't just dependent on Attack, Strength, Speed, and Agility, but on the defending player's Defence, Strength, Speed, and Agility.

I would love to see a more complex single player version, like Football Manager, but I very much doubt there'd ever be a market for it to make it a viable option.

[Puja]

I've played a couple of rugby manager games and found them massively frustrating, cause I know too much about rugby. I can play football manager as I haven't the first clue about the players in real life and so play them as I see them in the game, but rugby management sims telling me Farrell's got a 20 creativity or that Jonny May has 14 speed while Nowell has 15 drive me spare and I just can't separate my real world views of players from their cyber counterparts.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Often thought we need a rugby manager game! Tried a few on my phone and they're mostly rubbish (actually play rugby manager 2).

Line out definitely needs three categories - throwing, jumping and lifting.

Support play would need a stat as well for the sort of player that's always on hand to take the pass.

Aerial would be kick recieving wouldn't it? With calmness and technique as co-factors for dealing with the catches under pressure.

100% on the support play. Great shout.

Also agreed on the aerial, although I kind of put ‘calmness’ under decisions. Maybe there should be a ‘temperament’ Or ‘confidence’ stat that better covers the mental side of things?

I’m torn on the lineout piece. I agree that there’s probably a ‘throwing accuracy’ stat needed but if I was going to add a third it would be something to do with calling rather than lifting. Anyone who’s played in the forwards knows lifting is definitely important, but I’m not sure we know enough about how good individual players are at lifting to score them?

[Scrumhead]

There's an online rugby management game called Blackout Rugby. The stats there are Stamina, Handling, Attack, Defence, Technique, Strength, Speed, Agility, Jumping, and Kicking.

I've also previously been involved in trying to make one. It can be tough to get the players to act in the right way based on several attributes at once.

So, for instance, a line break isn't just dependent on Attack, Strength, Speed, and Agility, but on the defending player's Defence, Strength, Speed, and Agility.

I would love to see a more complex single player version, like Football Manager, but I very much doubt there'd ever be a market for it to make it a viable option.

All good points Stom and I tend to agree that the scale of the market wouldn’t really justify it. I think the only way would be crowd funding and even then I’m not sure how much it would cost to develop?