Looking at rice - what ARE the qualities of 'sushi rice'

wrong_rice.jpgWhilst staying with my parents recently I purchased a package of “sushi rice” from a major UK supermarket. The rice was their own brand and was grown in the USA. Without having anything to compare it to for a side by side comparison, this rice didn’t seem at all unusual when raw. However, once cooked it seemed rather different to the rice I’m used to using for Japanese food. I wasn’t able to take a detailed photo of the cooked grains (this image was made with an iPad) but it does give an idea of how long and thin those grains were – those that remained unbroken, anyway. I made onigiri with a tuna soboro filling with this rice but they didn’t stick together as well as they do with other brands of rice. The taste of this rice was also rather disappointing; rather bland even with the zakkokumai. What do you think? Do the individual grains look normal for a ‘sushi rice’?