Rugby Nations 2010

When it comes to rugby, for the sake of national pride, I'm all for the home nations never playing those from the southern hemisphere again.

While taking part in the Six Nations goes some way to making us look half decent – even the wooden spoon winner coming away with a few competent tries to its name – any time Australia, South Africa or New Zealand grace UK fields, they tend to make us look ridiculous.

Their rugby is fast, flowing and – most importantly – winning; ours gets stuck in the mud, full of grit and determination, but also shackled with mistakes aplenty.

Rugby without reality

It's those mistakes – the fumbles, the ill-advised change in strategy half way through a move, the lapses in defence that let the opponent straight through – which make rugby (technical Rugby Union of course) the exciting beast it is.

That is, from the off, Rugby Nations 2010's biggest problem. It simply doesn't feel like rugby, because the whole thing seems to be being played out by a clutch of androids.

While forward passes, knock ons and scrums – smartly contested via a series of fast-paced screen swipes – feature during most games, the vast majority of gameplay revolves around passing.

Players, both for and against, essentially run along in entirely flat lines, making scoring a question of passing the ball left and right at a regular pace until a gap opens up that you can charge on through.

The controls to do so are adequate, if not entirely comfortable, with pads on both sides of the screen enabling you to pass left and right, sprint, or kick.

The whole thing is sterile, though. Watching replays shows just how unnatural tries are, with players running down the field almost in unison. Indeed, it's possible to score the exact same tries, pass for pass, several times in one match, simply because there's no way to instigate any sense of creativity into your play.

Conceding points is just as regular. Managing to tackle your foe before he makes it to the line is tricky, with your opponent throwing the ball to a teammate – just as he should – as soon as you get anywhere near.

What makes holding him off often near impossible is the fact that Rugby Nations 2010 rarely lets you switch to a player anywhere near the man currently in possession, no matter how many times you hit the button.

By the time you do get the player you were after, the ball is long gone and – more than likely – points have been scored against you.

As such, both in and out of possession, Rugby Nations 2010 is a game that bears almost no relation to the real sport.

Attempting to manage the mediocrity that stems from both sides is an ordeal at times and, though all the major competitions feature here – from the World Cup to the Tri Nations – Rugby Nations 2010 suffers from the exact same problem as its predecessor: it's just too basic a ball game.