No rugby union game had been produced for four years since Rugby 08, which was also developed by HB Studios, then under the EA Sports label. It was announced on 29 March 2010 that The Rugby Forum and its members, would help HB studios gain a better understanding of what the general rugby-supporting public wanted in the new title. For the first time in the series of rugby games developed by HB Studios, the title has a player editor, but it is limited to attributes and names only.
Modes
Tournament Mode
This mode, which is the only area of the game in which most of the official stadia appear, is based entirely on the real-life tournament. As such it can be competed in as any of the 20 participating teams, with a schedule of pool matches to match the actual tournament. This is the only mode on the game which allows for full-length matches to be played in the official tournament jerseys.
International Test
This mode allows for contests between any of the 20 included teams, at any stadium included in the game. Similar to one-off matches in the FIFA series, for example, the match situation is a ‘one-off friendly’ and can be taken to a combination of extra-time and/or a place-kick shootout if the scores are tied after the last play of the match.
Warm-up Tour
This mode allows users to take a team on a tour of teams in their opposite hemispheres, although to play the stronger sides the user must first complete two tours of weaker nations. For example, to tour to the Tri-Nations teams with a northern hemisphere team, the user must first complete a 'Pacific Islands Tour', encountering Tonga, Samoa and Fiji; and also a 'South Atlantic Tour', encountering Namibia and Argentina. To tour to the Six Nations countries with a southern hemisphere team, the user must again complete two tours: 'North American Tour', meeting United States and Canada; and then 'Eastern Tour', meeting Romania, Russia, Georgia and Japan.
This mode allows for the user to contest a place-kick competition between any two included teams of their choosing. The match takes place in ‘Auckland’ stadium, and is set at night.
Teams
The game features all twenty international teams competing in the 2011 Rugby World Cup. However, only ten of the teams are officially licensed. Teams such as the All Blacks, and the Wallabies, are unlicensed due to their exclusive licensing deal with rival video game Rugby Challenge.
Trailer
The trailer of the game was released in July 2011.
The game received "mixed" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The Daily Telegraph gave the Xbox 360 version a score of three stars out of five and said that its most disappointing aspect "is just how threadbare it is in terms of modes." The Guardian similarly gave it three stars out of five and said that "there's just too little on offer here to justify the cost for a full-priced, boxed retail release." The Digital Fix gave it a score of four out of ten and said that it "stinks of under investment and cheap development shortcuts. It feels like a budget arcade game shoved into a shiny full-priced release and an officially licensed sticker stuck on top."
