Oh boy, I was so hopeful for this one.
I played rugby for twelve seasons, primarily at inside centre, and loved the sport. Gaming is another of my great hobbies, so combining the two has always held obvious appeal. I enjoyed Rugby Challenge 3 enough to play an entire season as myself in Be a Pro Mode and stream it on YouTube.
Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge 4 was originally released in 2020 but remained unavailable in the UK for a long time. I knew of its existence, though, and when this remastered edition suddenly appeared in time for the new UK rugby season, the timing seemed perfect.
Unfortunately, the timing is about the only thing that feels perfect.
I’ll cut to the chase: Any new rugby game is welcome, and there is just about enough in RC4 Remastered to keep me entertained—but only just. The game has enormous problems, most of which revolve around its AI and its limited understanding of how rugby is actually played.
I’ll try to keep this brief, but these are the gameplay issues that immediately stood out to me as a former player, coach, and lifelong rugby supporter.
Attacking players routinely arrange themselves in narrow diamond formations rather than responding intelligently to the available space. A winger should hold their width to stretch the defence, for example, but the AI regularly brings everyone towards the ball instead.
There are virtually no convincing dummy runners, while what feels like 70% of the attacking play consists of pick-and-go carries.
Players can remain on the wrong side following a tackle, wait for the next ruck to form, and then tackle the receiver from an offside position without being penalised.
The first receiver barely has enough time to move the ball, never mind allowing it to reach a second or third receiver before the defence arrives.
More generally, the AI often resembles a group of five-year-olds playing football: one large mass of players chasing the ball together. In fact, I’ve seen actual five-year-olds display better rugby awareness.
The backs frequently remain too deep and narrow behind the ball-carrier. As a former inside centre, I naturally look for someone running off my shoulder or holding their width outside me. Instead, the available pass can be almost directly backwards because nobody has moved into a useful supporting position.
At other times, the first receiver sets up far too flat, making a clearing kick unnecessarily difficult before the defence arrives.
The opposing AI appears similarly oblivious to its position on the field. It frequently attempts to run the ball from its own five-metre line rather than organising a sensible clearance.
The referee constantly occupies the passing lanes. Even when the official doesn’t physically interfere with play, their positioning is hugely distracting.
I played one ten-minute match containing six high tackles, three yellow cards and a red. More remarkably, this happened with the high-tackle slider already set just one click above its minimum.
Breakdowns are equally problematic. The opposing AI appears to receive an enormous advantage and will regularly steal possession, even when my players arrive more quickly and I commit considerably more bodies to the ruck. The same opportunities are rarely available when attempting to win the ball myself.
This eventually makes me reluctant to build an attack through multiple phases because I know the game will probably take possession away from me, irrespective of how securely I appear to have protected the ball. I tested this using teams with vastly different ratings and still encountered the same problem.
There is also little incentive to use the triangle button for a dominant tackle because doing so frequently produces a high tackle. I eventually abandoned it and relied almost entirely on standard tackles.
The AI will often pass back into a crowd of players rather than recognising and attacking the available space.
There have even been occasions when I was leading and conceded a penalty after the clock had expired. The penalty should have given the opposition one final opportunity to attack, but the referee simply ended the match despite the ball not being dead.
In short, the players display very little understanding of rugby’s basic tactics, laws, or formations. Some of these problems can be mitigated through tactical adjustments, set-piece moves, and sliders, but believable default behaviour should not require the player to repair it manually.
That is especially disappointing because RC4 Remastered is frustratingly close to being the game I wanted. I don’t remember these positional problems being quite as intrusive in Rugby Challenge 3. I wanted this to be the definitive version.
Unfortunately, the problems extend beyond the AI.
The original Rugby Challenge 4 featured licensed teams and players, but those licences have since expired. This remastered release consequently uses fictional players. That creates more than a superficial authenticity problem: Sometimes I need to know whether the player standing at first receiver is my fly-half or a prop. Because I don’t recognise the fictional names and cannot always see their numbers clearly, making a basic decision—such as whether to attempt a kick—becomes unnecessarily difficult.
There are also lengthy receiving animations following set-pieces. When trying to move the ball quickly along the line, it is easy to enter the next pass too early and have the input fail to register. The passing can feel erratic as a result. You eventually adjust to its timing, but it remains frustrating because I want to settle into the flow of a match rather than continually fight against the controls.
All right, that’s enough. I could continue, but you get the picture.
Is There Anything Good?
Thankfully, yes. There is enough here to make RC4 Remastered playable and, if you can tolerate its shortcomings, genuinely enjoyable. One particular mode even transforms it into something surprisingly good.
The remaster gives the game a cleaner, sharper, and much smoother appearance. Its 60fps gameplay is excellent, and I never noticed any obvious drops during my time with it. The player editor has also been expanded, although whether that was an area desperately requiring improvement is another question.
Most importantly, the game provides a greater range of usable rugby tools than its competitors. It gives you a full box of tactical toys to experiment with, much as you would on a real pitch.
The physics and movement of the ball are particularly effective. Putting through a grubber, attempting a chip, or launching a clearance before chasing the unpredictable bounce can be tremendous fun. It is also wonderfully rewarding when you conceive a move, execute it properly, and watch it work exactly as intended.
Graphically, the game is attractive enough for its purpose. I don’t necessarily want extraordinarily detailed, photorealistic players if those visuals make the action more difficult to read. RC4 Remastered’s on-field presentation is generally clear, concise, and close to what I wanted.
The interface is less successful and can be rather fiddly. By the time I have selected the formation or move I want, the opposition may already have reached the ball-carrier—and frequently has.
However, the real star is Be a Pro Mode.
For some reason, the AI appears to behave much more like a real rugby team in Be a Pro than it does in the other modes. It almost feels as though the game was primarily designed around this particular experience.
Players preserve their width and shape far more effectively. I encountered noticeably less of the mass ball-chasing seen during ordinary matches. AI teammates moved the ball towards the touchlines, attempted sensible clearing kicks, and generally produced something much closer to the rugby I wanted to play.
When RC4 Remastered begins to resemble the real sport, it can produce heart-pounding sequences of superb, addictive gameplay.
From a set-piece, you move the ball through a couple of pairs of hands. Your support runners are finally positioned exactly where they should be, allowing you to hit the gap and break the defensive line. The camera moves closer as you fend off the first tackler. Just before the covering defender reaches you, you pop the ball to the runner on your shoulder. It appears that the defence will catch them, but they step past the full-back and race the final 20 metres to score beneath the posts.
That is the beauty of sports games: their unwritten stories in which almost anything can happen. The underdogs produce an unexpected upset. A team defends its own goal line for the final ten minutes to preserve the victory. Someone attempts a match-winning drop goal from near halfway as the clock expires.
RC4 Remastered still generates enough of those moments to be fun, gripping, and genuinely exciting. It is simply a great shame that the wider game fails to provide a more accurate representation of how rugby is played outside Be a Pro Mode.
Be a Pro saves this game. It transforms what is otherwise frequently a hot mess into something engaging and entertaining. Without it, I would probably have walked away already. Because of it, Baldrick Ironside—my online alter ego—will be making his return.
Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge 4 Remastered has been salvaged from the wreckage but only just.
Developer: Glinda Games
Publisher: Tru Blu Games/Home Entertainment Suppliers
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release Date: 28th August 2026
