You were on the mark with Jonah Lomu Rugby being the best rugby game ever made, but Rugby 08 was pretty bloody close to knocking it off the top. I also agree making solid gameplay is the main concern and should be of the most importance. While licenses are great, I would rather a great game.
Main factors I think HB should look at is
*Correct rules and laws, nothing shits me when people don't even bother to make the game correct, it shows a lack of respect to be honest, and just plain laziness.
*Fluidity in open play, so realistic kicking (including many different styles), passing (pop, long, short, and especially to beable to do an inside ball, and to beable to pass to another human when playing on the same team), tackling needs to be more realsitic with more styles and automatically aim at the player with the ball (but dont have it so you can dive from far away!) and things like side steps and fends being well more realistic, with lightfooted people stepping at faster paces and stronger people fending better etc and having the ability to take a quick lineout any time you pick up the ball outside the field of play, and being stopped if the lineout has formed.
*scrums and lineouts to be more tactical and pretty much a "mini-game" in itself (not arcade crap) more choices in the lineouts including numbers, where to throw to, whether to lift or not, being able to jump with more than one player, same thing with defence. Scrums were nearly perfected in 08, but id like to see it a bit more indepth, better pushing and twisting, I reckon you could get pretty in depth using both sticks, use it stick to move that side of the scrum, have L3 to pull down the left side, R3 for the right. Have the hooker strike with L1 and R1 left and right foot. Have L2 and R2 make the flankers take off in defence, too quickly you would be pinged!
*rucks, just more realistic rucks, generally the person taking the ball into the ruck will win the ruck, so make it to do with timing of who gets to the ruck first and numbers. pretty much like Jonah rugby, but more realistic
*mauls just have to be more like scrums, have the ability to roll them, contest the ball and drive the maul backwards.
*plays and moves, have them quicker to set up, more moves, create a move! and have different choices for scrums, lineouts, ruck, mauls and even perhaps open play!
*choices, as in choices when a decision is to be made, have it like jonah where you press the button for the choice you want, feels more realistic than a menu. also have choices for when the ball is kicked dead, or off the kick off when the ball goes out on the full, a rekick, scrum or lineout.
*realistic bounce physics, pretty self explainitory
*a better way to kick goals, 08 was too much luck rather than skill, jonahs way of kickin for goal has still been the best to date
*Players running onto the ball, I like how 08 started that you can run your first reciever onto the ball, but id like it so you control the direction with the right and left sticks. have them run inside out or outside in etc. simply hold down the choice like passing right with r1 use the right stick to control the first receivers direction of running and then release the pass button at the right time.
*more realistic contests for the ball in the air, just have collisions and stuff
*defensive ai needs to be improved, even simply marking their man properly and tackling correctly, so if ur moving up they will cover on the inside properly, they just have to act like a defensive line
*multiplayer, it has to have 4 player multiplayer, online multiplayer and I plead with HB studios to allow at least 2 players from the same console to play on the net on the same team.
*stats have to be important, more subtle differences that will still alow the great players to stand out, but still aloow the lesser teams a realistic chance of competing (I dont know how jonah did it, but how ever they did it worked!)
*decent player, team and tournament creators
*Licenses, if your going to have real named players, have it for every team, I really felt the lesser nations were disrespected by the former ea sports rugbys. If your going to do something do it right
*Injuries done properly
*red and yellow cards for reasonable reasons
*substitues actually being a necessary part of the game, ie fatigue actually affecting the players more
*realistic knock ons, forward passes, penalties such as head highs and tackle in the air
Things I can do with out as long as what I said above is carried out and implemented well would be
* Licenses, I would rather a decent game than having everything licensed, im not buying it cause of what names r there, i want to buy it because it was an awesome game
*world league, while i would love a proper world league with being able to have more than 1 human controlled team, I can go without that if the game plays well against the AI in just a friendly match
*graphics, im probably in the minority here, but id rather a really solid game than something with flashy graphics and sub par gameplay, I think its important to set a base for the first game on the new console then work on it for the next game
*player models, while I would love to see every player be unique and an exact look alike, i think its a waste of resources at this point in time, as long as you can have a resembelance, the correct colour and rough size then i will be happy as long as i get a great gameplay experience
*challenge mode, if its going to be like 08 its pointless. I love classic matches but unless you use the old teams and give them proper stats its highly pointless and a waste of resources to be honest
*Fancy commentary, i dont care who you get to do it, as long as its done well
*7's while me and many people would love to see 7's introduced, I want a really good game first, if the gameplay isnt fluid in 15's how is 7's going to work?
* alot of people saying weather should affect the gameplay, while I agree with this, I don't believe it is necessary to start adding these sort of elements until the core gameplay is perfected
*a ref on the field, it would be nice to have a ref on the field and having a realistic line of sight, the same with touch judges, but as with weather until the core gameplay is perfected extra elements are just a waste of resources in my opinion
*be a pro mode, while this is another feature I love in sports games until we have a solid rugby game, with smarter ai there is little point. even online until we have a game that is fluid and responsive it would just be tacking on a feature that wont work properly and be a waste of time and resources.
As long as the game is an imporvement on rugby 08 i will be more than happy to fork out money for it and continue to support the series as I am sure most rugby fans will do.