For a game riddled with so many rules and - let's face it - pointless intricacies, rugby fans are an unfussy bunch. So long as the ball keeps moving, the scrums are steaming and the beer is flowing, just about any display of egg-chasing, no matter how basic, will keep the punters happy.

And that's why we reckon the rugby massive will happily lap up Rugby Challenge 2006 like it's spilt Guinness on the floor of a sweaty changing room. It's slick, reasonably fast, easy to get to grips with and, unlike its 2004 semi-prequel World Championship Rugby, it finally offers the chance to play as both the national teams and all the British club teams (both Premiership and Celtic league). Who cares that Rugby Challenge 2006 isn't the greatest sports game made? You get to play as club teams rugby fans! Like Saracens and Worcester! Since when have you been able to do that? Er, like, never!

But let's not get too carried away. We have, after all, just suggested that Rugby Challenge 2006 doesn't quite measure up in the quality stakes. Sure, it's great for pick-up-and-play stuff - especially if you're not all that au fait with rugby's rules and regulations - but if you're looking for a game with slightly more depth than a toddler's paddling pool, Ubisoft's first crack at the peanut-hugging market falls just short of touch.

So let's start with the good stuff. As with World Championship Rugby, everything i geared towards a fast running and passing game. Get possession, sprint towards the line and keep recycling the ball out to the wings courtesy of the trigger button passes. If you've played World Championship Rugby then you'll know exactly what to expect as the controls are nearly identical. In fact, the only real update to the controls are the mauls and scrums, which now use a simple repeating reaction test to help drive your pack forwards. Penalties are uncommon and, providing the ball doesn't go into touch too often, it's possible to keep a single phase of play going for an entire half's worth of action - that's how focused on free-flowing ball recycling Rugby Challenge 2006 is.

There's a much improved training mode too. And not just your typical running and passing tutorials either (although these are really helpful). Rugby Challenge 2006 offers loads of innovative little training games that help sledgehammer the basic techniques home - and bloody hard some of them are too.

But the real improvement is just how much content has been added. Not only are the Guinness Premiership and Celtic League teams now present, but the European clubs and the Southern Hemisphere clubs too, and all the competitions that go with them. Throw in plenty of challenge matches, some novel tweaks on the rugby format (Hot Potato for example, where you're only allowed to hold the ball for three seconds before passing) and a perfectly playable career mode that bears more than a passing resemblance to PES5's Master League and you have a game that most rugby fans will be pleased just to see exist.

But this isn't 2003 any more, and with England's World Cup victory now but a fading memory of a lunchtime hangover it's not so easy to jump on the first open-topped rugby bandwagon that comes along. After EA's Rugby 2005 managed to add some depth to World Championship Rugby's simple format with its momentum-based mauls and advanced passing and running techniques, we expected RC2006 to follow a similar suit. But it hasn't, and with EA's Rugby 06 (page 092) improving even further, this is likely to look even more basic in comparison.

There are some other troubling faults with RC2006 too. For one, it doesn't look all that hot. We know rugby players aren't the best-looking of sportsmen, but even the Elephant Man would gag at some of the monstrosities representing the Six Nations' finest here. Okay, so the lack of detail keeps things running smoothly, but Steve Thompson should consider talking to his lawyers.

And while we're on the subject, we're pretty sure balls, no matter how wrongly shaped they are, shouldn't bend in mid-air quite like they do in RC2006. Banana kicks we've heard of, but banana throws? It's like a bunch of magnetic players chucking a metal ball around - and no, we don't have the gravity-bending cheat turned on either.

But mostly it's in the lack of any real attempt to add depth to the game where Rugby Challenge 2006 suffers the most. Once again it's simply a case of continually passing the ball to the wings while running at full pelt towards the goal line. While RC2006 is certainly an improvement over World Championship Rugby in terms of content and options, it plays virtually the same, and for that it gets a significantly lower score. Rugby isn't the easiest game to recreate on a console, we'll admit, but you'd best try EA's Rugby 06 before making any kind of judgment call over which game to buy for this year's Six Nations, eh?

1. For such a complicated source material, Rugby Challenge 2006 is a remarkably easy game to pick up and play.
2. At last! All the top British club sides have been included, alongside the usual selection of national teams.

1. Simplistic controls don't allow for any great sense of depth and games quickly fall into a repeated pattern of play.
2. The graphics are rather simplistic, and the commentary from John Inverdale and Dewi Morris is very weak.
3. There's still no kind of online game. Surely this is a must to keep people playing in the long term.

Simple, easy to pick up and play, but lacks that all-important depth factor. We say wait for EA's game first.