Interesting that Richie is a 92 and Heinrich is a 98 in your rating system...maybe a typo, should be an 88? I don't mind legends being involved like in past Maddens, but not in the normal roster. Percy and the like (Robinson, Umaga etc...) are done with high level rugby, and if you rated Percy now he would probably be in the 70s or low 80s compared to current stars. Just have the players have ratings and let the ratings take care of who is a "star" or "impact" or whatever...If Matfield has a 99 "lineout jump" then he will clearly impact that portion of the game. I definitely think HB should take the time to Motion Capture some players because that has been some of the problems with rugby games in the past All the players were pretty much the same player (looks wise) with a different name. Also, please please please please change the rucking engine from the old games. Randomly lost rucks for no reason are really annoying. If I have players with a good rucking rating and I keep my players with support then I shouldn't lose the ball unless a very good poacher gets a hold of it, or I knock it on or the other team has a great counter ruck. So please do something about that! Please make the franchise mode like FIFA 11, with normal rugby transfers and scouting new players from other countries and such and building up your academy. Also, I don't necessarily "need" lower club levels like FIFA has (as in Coca Cola Championship, League 1 and League 2 in England or Spanish Primera and Spanish segunda etc...) though it would be nice, and if you can do it, do it! So you'd have:
England: Aviva Premiership, Championship
France: Top 14, Pro D2
Italy: Super 10
Japan: Japanese Top League
South Africa: Super 14, Currie Cup
New Zealand: Super 14, Air New Zealand Cup (is that still the name?)
Australia: Super 14, Compilation of Club leagues into one
Wales, Scotland, Ireland: Celtic League teams as well as top club teams
Argentina: Top 16 clubs from the regional competition and the Jaguars
USA: Super League (I play in the super league and for USA rugby so I know this one would be tough, just do your best with it)
Canada: Top Club competition (Same problem as USA, just do your best)
Try to get Fij Samoa and Tonga involved int he club leagues as well as maybe Russia, Georgia and Romania if you can but that is a lot to ask.
Playing in all the club leagues around the world would be fun but I would totally understand if the only "franchise" teams and leagues you could play in are from England, France, Italy, SA, Australia and New Zealand, but FIFA does a pretty good job allowing you to play with all the smaller countries leagues so I don't see why the little extra effort to get more leagues involved would be too tough. Cost effectiveness makes it tough because Rugby 2012 will be nowhere near as big a game as FIFA but it would still be worth it to the rugby community that wants to play the game. Then you could have the Heineken cup, and other representative club competitions. It would also be AWESOME if you could coach one of the Super 14 teams and also coach the club level of a team too, as in coach the Chiefs through the Super 14 and then coach Wellington in the Air New Zealand Cup.
Please just make the franchise mode good, not terrible like all past rugby games. If you lost players to international duty that would be cool too. You don't need to be able to coach international teams during your franchise mode but that would be pretty cool, or actually very cool. That way you could keep an eye on the domestic competition and your athletes playing in other countries and bring them in as they improve.
Okay this was really long, but all these features would give the game depth, which was one thing the previous rugby games were severely lacking.
