Chicago Hounds fly-half rated second-best player in world by Rugby 25
The launch of the latest Rugby 25 video game has been mocked following some unusual player ratings, with a Sale Sharks hooker who has never played Test rugby and a journeyman fly-half playing for Chicago Hounds rated as the second-best players in the world behind Antoine Dupont.
Sale's Tadgh McElroy has been given a 90 rating, one point behind the best player in the game in Dupont and above the likes of Damian Penaud, Jordie Barrett and Caleb Clarke.
Sale poked fun at the rating on Instagram with a post captioned: 'If you know, you know. Watch out Dupont.' McElroy responded to the club over WhatsApp by saying: 'It's quite funny to be honest. I've been sent this loads of times now. Getting a bit of stick from the lads but I'll accept the rating for sure.'
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McElroy was joined as a surprise 90-rated player by Anthony Watson, the former Leicester and England wing who announced his retirement last month.
The other 90-rated player is fly-half Tim Swiel, 31, who in a well-travelled career has played for (pause for breath) Western Province, Sharks, Harlequins, Newcastle, Stormers, Toyota Shokki, Edinburgh, Saracens and now Chicago Hounds.
The game, made by Big Ant Studios based in Australia, released an important patch update on Friday, a day after the game's launch.
'We've found some issues with the ratings related to save files (particularly for those people on PC that were part of the Early Access). These will be rectified in a downloadable update,' Ross Symons, Big Ant Studios' founder and CEO, wrote on X.
We've found some issues with the ratings related to save files (particularly for those people on PC that were part of the Early Access). These will be rectified in a downloadable update.
— Ross (@RossSymons) February 14, 2025
While the visuals for the new release received praise, there was notable criticism around gameplay, with one post on the Big Ant Studios forum titled 'Refund advice please'.
The game features international teams and more than 150 clubs from 11 competitions, including the Gallagher Premiership, United Rugby Championship and Top 14.
Early indications suggest that Rugby 25 will not threaten the two greatest rugby video games released to date, 1997's Jonah Lomu Rugby and Rugby 08, the final rugby game released by EA Sports in 2008.
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