What about a simple manual Ruck system like this?

[lionmaul]

Keep the animations and everything the same, just add a button similar to the hands in ruck, called the attempted push. The system would work like this, as you bind players your meter would be a color coded meter that works similar to the current meter the only difference is that it would be color coded, it could be red yellow and green on each side of the meter representing each team. Green being almost a 90% that you would win the ruck, how the bar is effected is by how, first who is the attacking team and then how many and who goes into the ruck, you get one attempt to take the ruck, if you try it on red you maybe have a 25% chance to take the ruck if you try it on yellow you have a 50% chance to take the ruck and on green a 90% chance. And for the hands in ruck you can keep it the same just add a referee vision cone, the more filled up the cone is the more likely he is to see what is going on at the rucks, so you know when to attempt the hands in the ruck, this is true even in real rugby the players are always checking to see if the ref is looking, could be a nice feature, because you could be managing both meters one that is some what auto the refs vision cone, and one that you have an input on. What are your thoughts, I think it is a fairly simple system that could be implemented, and would add some more player interaction to rucks.

 

[Bullitt]

The 2001 system was fantastic, I can't understand why it was dropped. So long as it's not the crap from Rugby Challenge 2006 though I'm not bothered.

 

[Rekkie]

My problem with 2001's effort was a very saw thump. The xbox's dpad isn't as bad but the PS2's can really hurt if you have to mash at it for too long...the lack of analog steering also added to that games problems. But I agree that the "push" "dig" thing was on the right track...maybe just a push up or down of the analog stick.

 

[ds_cru]

I'm gonna try out picking a team that has ball winners in most positions to cut down on turnovers. I tried this tactic in last years world league only, but it really did make a huge difference.
Only down side would b that the teams picked would b completely different from real life.

 

[paddyknight]

2001s was crap, it was just a scrum in free play...best one is still lomus, you controlled momentum of players coming in, can remove the ball whenever you want and really felt if you lost one you knew why.

 

[Mr. Laxative]

It was great, just the animation that made it looked like a scrum and by the way, back in the early days rucks actually looked like that.

I'd combine the '01 system and lionmaul's idea with the 06 animations and we would be very happy people.

I mean the push and drive thing could come into affect when you've got a good chance of winning, but against better teams you'll have to get more players in before shunting.

Also I think a player should be able to flick a ball up to a support player after he is tackled but before the ruck is formed.