RM - Rugby 7's

Recently one of the most prolific users on the forum came up with an idea that while not exactly new, might make it possible to fulfil some of the wishes many of you have.

To be more specific, here are some of the issues often brought up on the forums:-

firstly, the season is too long, especially when you are not fighting for promotion, or to avoid relegation.
secondly, some users want to spend more time on RM, but there is not enough 'management' to fill the time they have available.
and thirdly, the chance to be the biggest and best club in my country is too remote.

The idea is to have, if you wish (and if you satisfy some conditions that are yet to be decided), a “7s rugby” team as part of your regular XV a side Rugby Union club.

The key features could be  (subject to confirmation) :
-    You register your 7s club in a fictitious league of your choice (regular leagues won’t be obligatory, the same as in real life 7s)
-    These leagues will have groups of 6 teams only, which means a season will be 11 weeks long ( 10 games home and away, plus one week without a game, the off season week, as it is today). Games won’t be played on Saturdays and Sundays, but another day (maybe Monday, Friday or Wednesday? We’ll see about that later).
-    No club can enter a league after the season has started.
-    A group starts only when it’s full. No bots and no half-empty groups.
-    You use the same players you have today. Of course, if you get an injury in a 7s game, you won’t be able to play for any of the teams.
-    There won’t be any ticket income from these games, but a little bit of experience will be given, to balance the injury risk (but as injury risk is very low, the increase to experience will also be very small).
-    A good time to start this new feature could be September. You’ll get more information during the summer, when the things are discussed, decided and under development.


Your comments and feedback would be appreciated.

HOW TO organize a friendly game

I frequently get asked how to organize a friendly game, so here is a little tutorial

First, you need to find an opponent.

If you have one in mind, go to their club page and go directly to step 2.

If, however,you don't have an opponent picked out you can choose one from the list of teams that are available. To do this you must navigate to the 'friendly announcements' page.

1. STEP 1

Here, you'll find some announcements from teams advertising for a friendly game on the left side, and a list of teams currently available for (but not actively seeking) a friendly, randomly chosen on the right side. Click on the link of the team you wish to challenge.

1. STEP 2

If the team you selected has no friendly scheduled and is active, you'll see the following near the middle of the page.

Choose the date and place of the game (home or away, or even both if neither team has any friendly's scheduled) and click.. It's as easy as that!

Now, you have to wait to see if the challenged club declines or accepts your proposal. As soon as your prospective opponent accepts, you'll be able to set your line up, and the game will happen at the scheduled time and place.

*Note that you can cancel your pending invitation by clicking on the red cross on your club main page.

Please, let me know if this tutorial was interesting or not, and if you need another one concerning some problem you may have.

Cheers

Chris

Note about birthdays

I regularly get some questions about the recent introduction of player’s birthday's. It’s true that I haven’t given much information when this was done, that’s why I’m writing this message now (better late than never).
You all know how it worked before, don’t you? All players got their birthday when the last day of the season was reached. This had 2 big effects:
- The transfer market was like a rollercoaster between the end of the season (before players get one year older) and the beginning of the new one (when fresh 17 years old players arrive and when some training slots suddenly become available)
- The new user, getting his team right before the end of the season, saw his players getting older before they even played a single game.. while the another, getting his team right after, was able to play a whole season before his players turn one year older. This was very unfair.

The birthday has been introduced to fix both effects (even if the silly season had a kind of spicy taste and wasn’t really a problem when you were used to it).

Each player has now a birthday and ‘lives’ 133 days (19 weeks of 7 days) before getting older, whenever in the season they are created. This will make the transfer market more balanced during the season, but you’ll have to be extra careful when you buy a player, and watch out for his birthday because he may get older the day after you bought him, even if the season has only started.

Each player created before the introduction got a birthday too. The way it has been calculated could have been different … but whatever. The important thing is that they got one, please don’t worry (and don’t ask about ‘how’ and ‘why’). More than 95% of the existing players get their birthday on the day 133, which means no change for them: They'll keep getting older on the last day of the season.

Did this explanation help?

Chris.

World cup format change

To make upcoming World Cups, as well as national teams (NT) friendlies more exciting, it has been decided that:

- The next World Cup will be split in two: First and Second division World Cup, each containing 16 nations (4 groups of 4 nations each, as previously).

The 8 nations who qualified to the quarter-finals in the previous World Cup are automatically qualified for the next one, and will play against each other in a round robin tournament in 7 pre-determined fixtures to define their seedings in the next World Cup. These 8 teams are Italy, France, New Zealand, Romania, Scotland, Australia, Sweden and England

The remaining 24 nations will have to go through a qualifying tournament, to be played in a 7 round Swiss system. The seedings will be defined using their rankings after the next friendlies (July 21st). The top 8 teams in the qualifying tournament will play the first division World Cup, whereas the remaining 16 nations will play in the second division. The final positions in the qualifying tournament will be used to define the seedings of these 24 nations both in the first and second division World Cups.

Game engine v3.1

Until now, the game engine called v3.0 has been in use for all games.

As of now, you'll be able to setup your friendlies using either v3.0 or the new v3.1 game engine. We don't recommend you use v3.1 in tournaments or in friendlies where result means a lot, as bugs or other unpleasant things may happen!

This post will be regularly updated and will be the only official source to list the new features and differences between v3.0 and v3.1. Please check it regularly to get the latest information, as it will be updated when new features become available. (hopefully once or twice a week.)

NEW FEATURES and MODIFICATIONS.
1. After a scrum, the v3.0 engine accepted an action starting with the hooker holding the ball. This was completely unrealistic and won't happen anymore. Only numbers 8, 9 or 10 will start with the ball.
2. After a scrum, the v3.0 didn't see any problem with the fact that the first receiver could give the ball to a first or second row player. That was unrealistic as the front five are just leaving the scrum and looking for the ball. v3.1 will no longer decide that the first pass after a scrum can go to a first or second row player.
3. There will be a walk over if a team has less than 15 players on the pitch at kickoff (in v3.0, it was possible to start with only 14 players on the pitch).
4. Flankers will get tired! They'll stop tackling if they don't have enough stamina. One level is enough for 10 minutes of tackling. Which means that a flanker with a stamina level 3 will be able to tackle during the first 30 minutes only, a stamina level of 7 will give enough energy to tackle until the 70th minute ... a stamina level of 11 should be enough to tackle until the end of extra time. If a flanker is tired, another player will attempt the tackle instead.

5. Line-out. The formula for the two receivers fighting for the ball (still based on handling and height only) is slightly changed to find out who wins the ball in the end. The passing skill of the hooker is used to find "where to throw the ball". The higher the passing skill of the hooker, the more chance he will find a good receiver. (In v3.0, the best receiver of the team was always chosen by the thrower.) The number of potential receivers is unchanged and consists of the five players that make up second and third rows of each team.

6.Injuries. Some injuries will be so small that, although a replacement will need to be used in the match, the player injured will not need to use the sick bay and will still be available for selection the next day. On top of this, the probability of an injury occurring is slightly increased.

7.The Captain. In v3.1 the captain will play a small but significant role in your teams performance. In previous versions (v1, v2, and v3.0) your team would attempt to score a drop goal at random. Teams going into the last minutes of a game with three tries would, instead of attempting to secure a Bonus Point by scoring a fourth try, sometimes attempt a drop goal. The same principle applied when your team was losing by 9 points with a few minutes to go and no drop goal is attempted to secure a losing Bonus Point. In v3.1 the experience level of the player you select as your captain will determine whether these drop goals will be attempted or not, according to the situation your team finds itself in during the final stages of each match.
8. You can now choose the behaviour of 4 of your backs (10,12,13 and 15). According to your choice, they'll mainly pass the ball or try to run through the defensive line when they have the ball. The greyed choices (disabled) are only displayed to remind you how the others act (this is unchanged), and won't be enabled later.

v3.1 won't be in use for official games (league and cup) before season 15, which means that we have a little less than a season to test it.