So this is a game that was planned back in 2020, following the release of Rugby 13s Edition, as I was rampaging through classic sets for the main game, to allow for club sets where no individual or team scoring was available. That would be achieved instead by taking team points for/against at home and away, and calculating estimated team statistics using data for that year's internationals using ESPNScrum's StatsGuru.
Now as you may already know, ESPN soon after pulled the feature from the website, and that was the end of that idea (it would have used the Scoring Chance and split TRY!/Kick at Goal ratings from Rugby 13s instead of the Control ranges in Rugby 15s). This is also why there haven't been any new classic international seasons in forever.
A second method was to convert it into a quick score game where only points for and against were found on a chart. I had started to test this version using the two leagues that I had data for from the 1987 season - the 1987 New Zealand First Division and the 1987-88 English First Division.
The scores for the NPC were a bit low - in fact only 76.4% through 11 matches. I hadn't really understood how to account for the different opponents each team had in the team cards. And by this time, I had been told there would be a limit to how many new releases would be allowed per month, so I dropped it. I knew I wouldn't have the slots to add this title with all the new sets for all the other games in a year.
But like with volleyball (see that thread if you haven't already for an update), I went back to it recently, and accounted for the different opponents with a 'matchday performance' roll.
The game only requires 6d20 rolls and then 2d6 (and sometimes a d10) to find out each team's score for a match. Each team has a home and away set of three ratings - attack, defence, and matchday performance.
I suppose it would be easier to show you the chart and cards.
So this is the 1987 New Zealand Provincial League (First Division) scoring chart and two team cards for Auckland and Bay of Plenty. You roll for each team's relevant attack result with the d20, then modify it by the opponent's relevant defence result, and finally by the matchday performance roll. That gives you a result of 1 to 5 (below 1 = 1, above 5 = 5).
You then roll 2d6 for each team on their modified rating for the match, and you find the score. If the team is in result 5, you have to roll a d10 to find the units. There's also that added jeopardy where a roll of 11 or 66 on the score roll will push that team's rating down or up 1 group.
I've played out the whole season of 55 matches in a few hours, and the final standings looked like this.
Auckland only lost once, but it was the Ranfurly clash to Bay of Plenty, 30-27 (both teams were in group 4). Even though Bay of Plenty ended up in group 5 a bit too often, finishing with 80 more points, another set of rolls could have the opposite result. The other issue is that Wairarapa Bush only scored 50 points because they ended up in group 1 most of the time (8 of 10), and didn't score 4 times (of 6 in total).
But I still think it turned out pretty well in the end. As you can see points were within 0.32 per team per match of real-life.
At some point I suspect I'll go through the English League too and see how that comes off.
I have no idea if there is any interest in this type of module. To add modern leagues, I would need to add a second roll for the number of tries scored (perhaps modified by differences in teams too where the percentage of tries to goals is away from the norm).
Anyway, let me know if you have any thoughts or questions to this.