Over the Line: The Second Edition
3 October 2026
The matches you care about
The Premiership is under way, and Over the Line has a Second Edition.
The headline is Book Two, the Match Player. A match runs to twenty-four possessions, twelve each, alternating. One d20 decides what each passage becomes: a clear chance, a chance, a half-chance, a siege on the line, or a turnover. Roll a natural 1 and the ball is suddenly going the other way.
Win a penalty in range and you make the call. Take the three, or kick to the corner and back your maul. A side with a good boot usually takes the points. A side with a weak one goes to the corner, and at 12-10 down with four possessions left even a good kicker might think twice.
Camped on their line, you can grind for the penalty or drop into the pocket for a drop goal. Concede a penalty and you roll for discipline, and a yellow means fourteen men for the next two possessions. Each chance comes with a line of commentary, so by full time you can read the match back.
A match takes twenty to twenty-five minutes on the table.
The Match Player app
The download includes an app that plays the Match Player on screen, in your browser, with nothing to install.
Pick two sides. The ten Premiership clubs are already in it, and any team you have rated goes in by typing or pasting its three numbers. Tick neutral venue for a final. Then either let the app roll, or roll your own dice and type each one in.
Every possession comes up with its line of commentary, and the decisions are still yours. Win a penalty in range and it asks: the three, or the corner? Camped on their line, it asks whether to grind or drop for goal. Cards, the man advantage and the score are kept for you.
At full time you get the tries, conversions, penalties and drop goals for both sides, the whole possession log to read back, and an angle for your match report. A game in progress saves itself as you go, so you can stop at half-time and pick it up tomorrow.
The rest of the round
Quick Play has moved into the core rules. It used to live on page four of one season pack, and it deserved better. A match takes under two minutes, a whole Premiership round about a quarter of an hour, so you can play your own club's match in full and run everyone else's around it.
The original phase-by-phase game is still in Book One as the Classic Match, with its own scoresheet. Book One also covers knockout matches that finish level, neutral venues, play-offs, bonus points and rating your own teams.
Premiership 2026-27
The download includes all ten clubs rated for this season. Bath start as favourites. Saracens and Leicester are next, level on paper, with Exeter and the champions Northampton chasing them.
There is also a League Helper app. Load the clubs, and it builds a home-and-away fixture list, takes your results and keeps the table with bonus points. It works offline in your browser.
If you already own it
It is free and already in your Payhip library. The original 1st Edition rulebook stays in the download too, with its Six Nations, Rugby Championship and World League of Rugby ratings, and every Over the Line season pack plays with the new books as it is.