Referring to country version of rugby — endless criticism follows (6)
I believe the answer is:
rustic
'referring to country' is the definition.
(rustic means relating to the countryside)
'version of rugby endless criticism follows' is the wordplay.
'version of rugby' becomes 'RU' (rugby union).
'endless' means to remove the last letter.
'criticism' becomes 'stick' (I've seen this before).
'follows' says to put letters next to each other.
'stick' with its last letter taken away is 'stic'.
'ru'+'stic'='RUSTIC'
(Other definitions for rustic that I've seen before include "someone to represent the country?" , "Charmingly simple" , "plain" , "Characteristic of rural life" , "Rural - simple" .)