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That's it lads, stick the boot in. This favourite recommendation of my old rugby coach was brought back to mind recently, firstly by T.V. coverage of the Rugby World Cup and secondly by this spiffing piece of software from Audiogenic.

It's genuinely a myth that rugby players have to be big and hairy with cauliflower ears and miles of insulating tape permanently wrapped around their heads, at least by the standards of Audiogenic World Class Rugby. All these sprites are clean cut, slim and wiry and, believe it or not, I didn't hear a single curse during the entire course of the game, (well at least not from the on-screen players!). Furthermore, they never joined Garth or myself in the pub afterwards, yet more convincing evidence of how civilised this gentleman's game has become.

The accuracy with which the real game's rules and play are recreated in this simulation is quite impressive, along with the range of options available. Unlike many sports sims which look rather bland, World Class Rugby impresses immediately and you get a genuine feeling of real time action. The teams available includes the five home nations plus all the well known teams from the rest of the world. In play the whole team react to the opposition under computer guidance while you get control of the player closest to the ball. This player is marked with a diamond and when in possession of the ball he can make several realistic movements including long or short passes, "Garry Owen" up and under kicks or kicks to touch.

If you don't have possession the object is to tackle the opposition, you can move the diamond to different players with ease so there should be no excuse for easy tries.

Kicking and line outs are easy to understand and control and during scrums or lineouts a set piece play option screen appears allowing you to choose a maneuvere or formation which your team will follow once they've won the ball. Rucks, mauls and scrums are simply brilliant fun. It's Viz like joystick waggling action all the way as you try to gain the push and of course net the ball.

The graphics options include seven different pitch colours (though I must admit I've never seen a pink rugger field before) and seven different colours for player's strips. There are also seven daunting difficulty levels.

Audiogenic have really made touch with this game and it's now up to you to score the tries. Good graphics, a sense of realism and a fine range of options makes this the best sports sim I've seen in a while. Though I must admit I'm biased, I hate soccer.

Label: Audiogenic Memory: 48K/128K Price: £10.99 Tape, £15.99 Disk Reviewer: Big Al Dykes

Wheel that scrum, ground that maul, make the ref's life as difficult as possible. There are so many options available in World Class rugby that your life will be made extremely easy. A very likeable game.