Version 1.9.0

Version 1.9.0 strengthens Rugby Tracker’s competition modelling and long-term maintainability with the addition of configurable, database-backed rulesets, dedicated ruleset maintenance tools and support for the 2025/26 PREM season.

Earlier versions of Rugby Tracker introduced competition-specific rules through application code. That approach worked well while the number of supported competitions remained small, but each new competition required additional code changes and made the ruleset layer increasingly difficult to maintain.

This release moves ruleset configuration into the database, making competition rules easier to inspect, manage, import and export. It also adds the final competition currently required by the project, completing the intended initial coverage across the major domestic and international competitions being followed.

✨ New Features

• Added support for the 2025/26 PREM season.
• Added the PREM competition ruleset, including:
  • Four league points for a win.
  • Two league points for a draw.
  • Try bonus point for scoring four or more tries.
  • Losing bonus point for losing by seven points or fewer.
  • PREM-specific league-table ordering.
  • Exclusion of semi-finals and the final from regular-season league-table calculations.
• Added a dedicated Rulesets maintenance tab.
• Added the ability to create and maintain rulesets through the application.
• Moved ruleset configuration from application code into the Rugby Tracker database.
• Added ruleset import.
• Added ruleset export.
• Linked competition behaviour to stored ruleset data rather than hard-coded competition logic.
• Improved the foundation for adding future competitions without requiring substantial application changes.

Configurable Competition Rules

The most significant change in this release is the move from hard-coded rulesets to database-backed configuration.

Competition rules can now be represented as structured data, including values such as:

• League points for wins, draws and losses.
• Try bonus thresholds.
• Losing bonus margins.
• League-table sorting criteria.
• Knockout-stage exclusions.
• Competition-specific calculation behaviour.

This makes the ruleset layer more transparent and easier to maintain.

Rather than requiring new application logic for every competition, future competitions can normally be added by:

1. Creating or importing the appropriate ruleset.
2. Adding the competition and season.
3. Importing the relevant teams, venues, officials and fixtures.
4. Associating the competition with its ruleset.

Competition-specific code may still be required where a genuinely unusual format cannot be expressed through the existing configuration, but this should now be the exception rather than the normal approach.

Ruleset Maintenance

The new Rulesets tab provides a dedicated place to inspect and maintain competition rules.

This keeps ruleset management separate from general competition maintenance while making the relationship between competitions and their calculations more visible.

The maintenance interface supports the same broader Rugby Tracker principles as the rest of the application:

• Clear data relationships.
• Explicit competition behaviour.
• Explainable calculations.
• Straightforward maintenance.
• Preference for configuration over unnecessary code complexity.

Ruleset Import and Export

Rulesets can now be imported and exported independently of the application database.

This provides several benefits:

• Rulesets can be backed up separately.
• Competition configurations can be reviewed outside the application.
• Rulesets can be transferred between Rugby Tracker installations.
• New competitions can be prepared as reusable import data.
• Changes to competition rules can be tracked more clearly.

Import and export also support the project’s aim of building a reliable long-term reference rather than treating the application database as an opaque internal store.

PREM Support

Version 1.9.0 adds support for the 2025/26 PREM season.

The implementation includes:

• The ten participating teams.
• The eighteen-round regular season.
• Home-and-away league fixtures.
• PREM league points and bonus points.
• PREM league-table ordering.
• Top-four qualification for the semi-finals.
• Two semi-finals and a final.
• Exclusion of knockout matches from the regular-season league table.

This brings PREM into Rugby Tracker alongside the other domestic and international competitions currently being followed.

Completing the Initial Competition Coverage

With the addition of PREM, Rugby Tracker now supports the full set of competitions currently required by the project.

Further competition support will be added when new seasons or tournaments become relevant and their formats, fixtures and regulations are known.

The application is not expected to undergo further major development at this stage. Future work will primarily consist of:

• Adding new competitions and seasons.
• Updating rulesets where regulations change.
• Importing fixtures and results.
• Maintaining reference data.
• Making targeted corrections or improvements where necessary.

This reflects the project’s preference for building a focused, dependable tool rather than continually expanding the application for its own sake.

A More Maintainable Foundation

Version 1.9.0 is therefore both a feature release and a consolidation release.

It adds PREM support, but its larger contribution is architectural: competition rules are now treated as maintainable data rather than embedded application behaviour.

This should make Rugby Tracker easier to extend without allowing the codebase to become dominated by competition-specific exceptions.

The result remains consistent with the project’s overall purpose:

A rugby tracker with useful analysis for supporters

The focus remains on accuracy, clarity, explainable calculations and long-term maintainability.