1.) The positives:

If Rugby is your favourite sport, this is the best Rugby management sim currently available to buy.
The general feel of the game is pretty good - the layout is very simple and it doesn't take you too long to get used to navigating your way around and working out each little game facet..
The player/league database is pretty accurate and up-to-date, although only certain teams from certain leagues are licensed (Aviva Prem, Pro 12, Top 14) and for some reason if you decide to coach international sides, the player's names are not licensed when they are called up to their international squads (something which I found slightly bewildering).
Some of the competitions are also not licensed, eg: the Six nations is called the "NH Nations" - but if you can get past the lack of full licensing, this IS an enjoyable game.
You can take over a club - build your club facilities, set your own tactics, bring through and cultivate your own youth teams, sign/loan players - even set your own ticket prices. I have spent many enjoyable hours so far, and I would normally reccommend a game like this - however:

2.) The negatives:

If you are looking at this game, hoping for a Rugby Manager sim which is similar in style and execution to the Football manager game series - think again. This is absolutely nothing like Football manager, it is clearly years behind in it's development.
First of all, the tactical side of the game I found massively wanting - you only have the option of setting extremely basic game tactics. You can manually select players for line-out and scrum, but that is about it.
As a result, I quickly found a tactical system within about 1 hour of game time which was almost unbeatable, and with an average Northampton Saints team which has struggled in real life, I went the whole calendar year unbeaten, winning the treble in my first season. I repeated this feat for the next three seasons, using the same tactics, and almost the same players.
I then took over as Italy manager and won the six nations grand slam at the first time of asking using the same tactics, beating england 40-0 in the process.
Basically, this lack of in-depth tactics has made the game incredibly easy to beat - it is just not challenging or realistic whatsoever in this regard, which I thought was a a massive shame, as there is the basis of a good game there.

The second major negative point is the 3-D match engine. Far from the crisp graphics and smooth flow of the Football manager series, the 3-D engine on Rugby union Team Manager is one of the worst I've ever seen in a sports sim game.
The players run around randomly, rucking at random intervals. This chaos leads to an enormous amount of glitches, the most common of which are passes which go about 10 feet forwards yet are still counted as legal, and nearly always lead to a try. There is also a glitch which occurred in about 30% of my matches where sometimes a player would get possession of the ball, and run 50 metres the opposite way down the pitch to his own try line, and the ref would blow for a scrum to the other team in the try zone - sometimes even blow a try to the opposing team!
When you're in the opposition try zone powering towards a 78th minute try to win the game and this happens to you, it's incredibly frustrating.
The only positive thing about the 3-D match day engine is the team call system which is used - it makes for an interesting dynamic, but is incredibly frustrating to me because like the general game mechanics, there is the basis of a good game there, it just needs massive development.



Overall, if you're a fan of Rugby, this is an enjoyable game, but it is so mind-numbingly easy and incredibly riddled with bugs and glitches, that it is not worth it unless you are a seriously big fan of the sport like I am.

At £29.99, this game is almost the same price as Football Manager, but it is absolutely light years behind it in terms of the experience it offers. I say this - don't waste your money.

considering i read somewhere this was a 'completetly rebuilt' game and not a update to 2015 - i'm massively disappointed so far.

the transfer market is exactly the same, players aged 21 or 33 at the same level are valued the same, you cant even see the transfer market, loan list or freebies - you have to scout it each time (so if you only have 1 scout and send him out looking at the player, team, league - then your screwed). i get that you need to 'scout' players but why can you scout all transfer listed players instantly and get their stats, yeah if i wanted to just view one player (george north for example) - i would need to either scout his club, position and have to wait a few days. masking player stats would have been a better way of handling this. frankly the transfers opperate awful.

one of the bit user feedback on 2015 - was the interface, still as frustrating at before - and because there are more features, its takes longer to remember everything.

staff - as far as i can see, every staff member in the world is employeed??? am missing something, so again you have to scout staff and then a 'transfer fee' for the staff member.

to promote and talk about 'new manager profiles' .... wow desperate times, its one or the other, thats the feature!

i really enjoyed the first game and put in nearly 100 hours, this after 2 hours i was massively disappointed, is it better than 2015 - yes of course, but its no where near what i expected. will this negatvie review be amended down the line to a positive - possibly!

for me, its a facelift, and a poor one at that, majortity of the game is the same as 2015, and for £30 its expensive... especially compared to other recent releases around the same price point (FM17, motorsport manager and planet coaster)

10hrs GP:
I've played the game for 10 hours now and I have so far only experienced one bug, so I'm not sure what other people are doing, maybe it's their OS? The menus aren't very laggy, taking less than a second for each click to respond and load the corresponding request, so I don't really know how much quicker people want it?

The game is very enjoyable, and is definitely like many other strategy games, I've just reached Christmas and I've now got a set tactical game plan, and I've promoted a few academy players. I've slowly overhauled my staff and the team training is much more effective.

I think the problem is, because the game looks rough, it's hard to see past this on first viewing. It's the same as every game, when you get used to the interface, everything is quicker and you look past what it looks like and instead focus on what it does.

Would still recommend!

2hrs GP:
Right, firstly I need to say this will be a working review even though I am reviewing after 2 hours, because I feel there needs to be some balance after seeing the first couple of reviews.

It's rough and ready, but it's good. You can't compare it to Football Manager and their level of detail as they have much more money and have been developing the game over decades, not a couple of years. Plus rugby is far more complex in terms of tactics and positioning.

The database is a bit iffy, Manu Tuilagi has around 40 power, and Harry Thacker has apparently reached his potential at the age of 22. However, I restarted the game a few times, and the attributes and potentials changed for just about all the players. So I feel the game may have a randomiser similar to Football Manager where it randomises some attributes to create an original experience each time you start a game. It creates an air of luck, it is a game and you can't expect to replicate real life exactly.

When playing, there isn't a database of players, you must scout for the position/team/league, and then view the players from there. This for me is more realistic: attributes, value, potential, injures etc. all change from day to day, so it doesn't make sense to have a spreadsheet full of players, you need to scout them!

My favourite feature is during the match, you can choose the kind of kick off, choose the play you're going to do off your set piece, and choose what to do for a penalty. Which gives you much more control compared to just watching the players do it themselves.

The match engine is a bit raw, but it's only been a few years in development, what do you expect? The defensive positioning is poor, but it is just a game, you can't expect to see or implement a Paul Gustard style blitz defence.

The interface is rough and it's not the cleanest or neatest. But it is understandable at the very least and I feel I'm getting my head around it.

Give the game a go, it is enjoyable, but don't expect it to blow you away.

Poor interface, very basic with buttons that must be toggled to navigate, no smart design with user experience in mind. Lots of bugs, constantly having to refresh pages. Only Prem, Pro12, Top14 & D2 licensed with inaccurate player info & attirbutes. Feels like a framework of a work in progress rather than the finished article. Very disappointed.

I really hope that my review is able to help you; if you would like to know more, post a comment, and I will endeavour to answer.

As a long time player of Cricket Captain and Football Manager, I was especially keen to get stuck into a management game focused on my beloved rugby. I have not been disappointed - the game is really excellent, although there are a couple of things that I personally would like to see change.

- I really like the interface - it is easy to navigate and easy on the eye.

- From a resource management point of view, this game is excelent - one has to manage finances, staff, players, a long term plan (attempting to please the board and also grow the stature and infrastructure of one's club etc).

- Tactics: I really enjoy matches and the tactical side of things, although I slightly prefer the FM (and even early Championship Manager) approach of having sliders for everything. The team calls are fun, but I would rather have to analyse my team's strengths and weaknesses, adjust a whole host of tactics with sliders (so I don't do silly things like try creative passes with a prop etc). There is so much potential in rugby for multiple tactical elements one can control, from individual decisions, to varying team philosophies. Some of this is already in the game of course. One can vary one's attack "expansiveness" in 12 different zones on the pitch and change one's defensive system in 4 different zones on the pitch, but I think individual instructions for each position would also be nice.

- Matches: These generate realistic score-lines and are enjoyable. If you want a hands on approach, you can ad-lib defence and attack parameters and also decide when to kick, although it seems to be difficult to clear the ball to touch! I'd personally like the clock to operate in real time, but with "boring" passages of play skipped (as in Football Manager). If this were to be altered, one would then have more stats at the end of games for things like knock ons, penalties etc.

Overall though, the matches as they are, are great, but I am sure that the developers are planning to improve the player animations, movements etc with time.

Not perticularly worth the price. Seems to crash often, the changing of players within your player squad takes forever, and your team doesn't really take on board ANYTHING you change. I understand that it hasn't had the funding that Football Manager has, but why try and basically rip off the UI of FM? Design your own, come up with your own concepts. Unfortunately I can't see a decent rugby management sim ever coming out. Companies just aren't willing to put the money and time into a game like this, when they can spit out a half decent football game and make ten times more.

Bought it, played it, refunded it.

Menus are laggy, bugs are rife. This game should be early access alpha and a third of the price.

I get that the game is generated each time you play it, which is a great idea but the rest of the game just doesn't work.

I won't be buying any more manager games for Rugby which is a shame.

The last one I purchased was PRM, that is now 69p. This one is pretty much identical and I imagine will go the same way.

Terrible game, no idea how it was made in 2017. Do the developers even play another manger games? Very difficult to navigate, no tutorials or help, tactics is a joke, no way to properly pick a team, finding new players is very hard, gameplay makes no sense at times on why players do certain movements, no way to communicate with players or staff. Anyone who recommends this is clearly wrong. Was hoping for something a little better but this a steaming pile of bull turds. Disappointed there is never any good rugby games.

Not a perfect rugby management game by a long way, but easily the best rugby management game available at the moment. It is better than the previous version of the RUTM with some much needed improvements. Certainly a must have for any Rugby Union fans who enjoy management games. It does take some getting used to so give yourself time to get used to the game

So far so good but a few areas that need to be rectified in future updates.


Very awkward to find players & staff - A 'search' menu would be ideal.

Be able to click on clubs and players, in fact any game data and be directed to that item rather than it be a dead link or have to trawl through the game.