Rugby Union Stats is the ultimate in Fantasy Rugby. You are a Premiership Coach. You sign real-life English Premiership stars, select them for your team and their performances each week determine your success. It's your chance to coach real-life Premiership players, and show that YOU are the best coach in your league.

Every week you have to decide which players to select, signing new players, making transfers with other coaches and predictions for the results of top Premiership games.

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How it works

There are ten teams in each game of Rugby Union Stats each trying to win the league over a full season.

Rugby Union Stats is a game of rugby management. Your squad is made up of twenty-four current Premiership stars and your results are determined solely by their performances in real-life. Each turn you have to select a lineup from your squad, made up of two props, a hooker, two locks, two flankers, a no.8, a scrum-half, a fly-half, two centres, two wingers and a full-back. Some players are allowed to play in other positions than their own (a flanker may play no.8, a centre on the wing and so on). You also have to decide which players will be your designated kickers for that week's game.

Your players stats for the week are taken from their real-life performances, with every single game played in the English Premiership over the weekend being used. It's important you select the right players. There's no point having one of the top scorers in the league if you haven't selected him in your lineup!

Scoring

All players score tries and drop-goals equal to their scores in real-life. However, only your primary designated kicker can score penalties and conversions (if he fails to kick any in real-life then your reserve designated kicker counts instead) and you cannot score more conversions than you scored try (obviously you cannot convert a non-try). 

Game results

The season follows the English Premiership season, played from August through to May, with breaks for international weekends and weekends when very few English Premiership clubs are playing. European Cup and domestic Cup weekends are normally used. Turns are normally run and posted on Mondays, with your orders for the following weekend due to be posted back by the Friday.

Each week you play one other team in your league and the result of the game is simple - if you outscore your opponents you win, if you don’t, they win. At the end of the season the team with the most points wins the title.

Roster management

Rugby Union Stats is a trading game. You have a limited income every turn (which is biased towards helping losing teams to recover by giving them more income, though you can increase your income by investing in marketing, merchandising and so on) with which to pay your players. The more successful your players are, the higher their wage demands become, so you need to continually be signing players and shuffling your roster to keep your finances under control, and keep your team competitive. Rugby Union Stats isn’t a game where you can sign the "perfect team" and then simply watch them win all season.

Poaching players

If a player is drastically undervalued then other teams can approach them and tempt them away by offering the player a significantly higher salary (at least 50% higher than his current salary). The player’s current team always have the chance to match such an offer, and if they do decide not to match it they receive compensation when the player moves teams, so they’ll have more money available to go out and find a replacement. Every player has a value, and it’s up to you to decide how much a player is worth to you.

Every turn you’ve got decisions to make about signing, transferring or waiving players. You place your own players on the transfer list, make bids for unsigned players or approach underpaid players from other teams. In all cases you decide how much to bid for a player. If another team decide he's worth more then they can increase your bid the following turn (though they have to bid at least 50% more than you), otherwise you sign the player.

There is also a secondary competition in Rugby Union Stats. Each week during the season you have to predict the results of all the real-life games. At the end of the season each team gets an income bonus for the following year according to how well they've done in this competition. It offers an interesting sideline to the game, regardless of how successfully your team is performing.

Game reports

Each turn you’ll receive half a dozen pages of reports: a full roster listing with current scoring details for all of your players and full financial details for your teams. You’ll also receive game reports, showing the scorers in every game in the league, league tables, details of free agent signings, trades, holdouts and unsigned players who you may wish to consider making a bid for. 

All reports are sent either by email or via the post – you can play whichever way you wish. Email is the preferred option, and means your game results will be with you within minutes of the games being played.

Games and turnfees

There are a  number of games of Rugby Union Stats already running in the UK, running from August through to May. All run with weekly deadlines (so you've seven days between turns). We have positions available in most of these games that will allow you to start play immediately (as in real-life, you take over a team and try to turn their fortunes around). You can join during the season - teams are always available whose coaches have left and are being run by the computer. 

Turnfees in Rugby Union Stats are £8.00 for four, £18.00 for ten and £32.00 for twenty. There are further discounts available if you play in more than one game. Click here for more details of turnfees. We welcome players from outside the UK, though you'll probably need to play Rugby Union Stats by email because of the short time between deadlines (weekly). Click here for more details of overseas players.

Sending Orders/Play by Email

Your instructions are normally sent through our active website, but can also be sent by post or fax if required. Click here for more details on play by email

How to join

To join Rugby Union Stats you'll need to send £5.00 (payable to Ab Initio Games) along with your name and address, which covers the cost of your rulebook(s), team setup and first three turns. When you send in your application please give a team name.

To join the game you need to click here to pay your startup fee by credit card via our secure server website, or you can print out the form below and post it to us along with payment.  If you send us your payment electronically please also email Danny McConnell with your team name then we'll be able to get you started in a game even more quickly. If you'd rather submit your application by post, please print off the form below and include payment when you send it to us.

Rugby Union Stats is run by Danny McConnell of Ab Initio Games. Click here for details of waiting lists. 

Please print, complete and return the details below:

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YES, I’d like to join a game of Rugby Union Stats

I’ve enclosed a cheque/postal order for £5.00 (payable to Ab Initio Games).

Team Name:

Name:

Address: 

Email Address if you're happy to be contacted this way:

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