50 Fun Facts About Rugby

How many players does each side field in rugby union?

Eight are forwards wearing 1-8 and seven are backs wearing 9-15; rugby league plays with two fewer.

How many points is a try worth in rugby union?

The conversion afterwards adds two, and a penalty or drop goal scores three; in rugby league a try is worth four.

How many players are on each rugby league team?

League split from union in 1895 over paying players; the NRL and Super League are its premier club competitions.

By legend, what did William Webb Ellis do in an 1823 school football match to invent rugby?

Catching the ball was allowed; running with it was not. He became a clergyman and died in France in 1872, leaving £9,000 mostly to charity.

In which English county is Rugby School, where the game was supposedly born?

It was founded in 1567 with money from Lawrence Sheriff, a grocer to Elizabeth I, and reshaped by headmaster Thomas Arnold.

In which year was the Rugby Football Union formed and the first international played?

The RFU was created by clubs that had left the Football Association over 'hacking'; the first international was at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh.

In which West Yorkshire town did the 1895 split that created rugby league take place?

Northern clubs quit the RFU over reimbursing working-class players for lost wages; the rule differences came later.

In what year did rugby union finally drop its restrictions on paying players and go professional?

It happened as the World Cup in South Africa ended, and the money talks that followed created the Tri Nations and SANZAR.

In a rugby union scrum, which player is responsible for 'hooking' the ball back with a foot?

The same player usually throws the ball into line-outs, where the tall locks compete for it.

How many players from each team make up a rugby union scrum?

Front row (two props and a hooker), second row (two locks) and back row (two flankers and a number 8).

The first Rugby World Cup in 1987 was co-hosted by which two countries?

Sixteen teams took part until 1999, when it grew to twenty; it expands to twenty-four in Australia in 2027.

Which nation has won the Rugby World Cup the most times?

Four titles to New Zealand's three; Australia has two and England one, and no other country has won it.

The Webb Ellis Cup is nicknamed 'Bill'. Which team's 1991 winners coined the name?

The gilded silver trophy is 38 cm tall and follows a 1740s design by Paul de Lamerie.

Who kicked the extra-time drop goal that won the Springboks the 1995 World Cup final 15-12?

Nelson Mandela then presented the trophy to captain Pienaar wearing a Springbok jersey - a moment later dramatised in Invictus.

Why had the Springboks never competed in a Rugby World Cup before hosting in 1995?

The IRFB readmitted the country in 1992; 1995 was also the first World Cup hosted by a single nation.

How many tries did Jonah Lomu score against England in the 1995 World Cup semi-final?

He had become the youngest ever All Black the year before, aged 19 years and 45 days, and was diagnosed with a kidney disorder that same year.

Jonny Wilkinson's winning drop goal in the 2003 World Cup final in Sydney came against which team?

It came in the last minute of extra time in Sydney; he later won two Heineken Cups with Toulon.

How many test caps did Richie McCaw finish with, then a world record?

He captained the All Blacks in 110 of them, won two World Cups and was named World Rugby's player of the decade for 2011-2020.

In which position did Richie McCaw predominantly play?

He was the first rugby union player to reach 100 test wins and won World Player of the Year a joint-record three times.

What record total did Dan Carter overtake to become international rugby's leading scorer in November 2010?

The record had belonged to Jonny Wilkinson, who briefly took it back in 2011 before Carter reclaimed it; Carter was man of the match in the 2015 final.

Which two opponents did Siya Kolisi's Springboks beat in the 2019 and 2023 RWC finals?

He was appointed captain in 2018, the first black man to lead the Springboks, and lifted the trophy in 2019 and 2023.

What was Europe's annual championship called when it began in 1883 with England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales?

France joined in 1910 to make it Five Nations, and Italy in 2000 made it Six.

In the Six Nations, what is a team said to have won if it beats all five opponents?

The Triple Crown is only for a Home Nation beating the other three; the Wooden Spoon goes to whoever finishes last.

England and Scotland contest the Calcutta Cup. The trophy was made in 1878 by melting down what?

The Calcutta Football Club's remaining members withdrew 270 rupees from the bank; the lid is topped with an elephant.

How many outright Six Nations titles, including earlier forms, had England won by 2025?

England and Wales were level on 39 titles overall when shared championships are counted; Wales had 28 outright.

Which nation joined the Six Nations in 2000?

Its match with France is played for the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy.

The All Blacks' nickname reportedly arose in 1905 when a London newspaper wrote they played as if they were what?

That touring side, the 'Originals', lost only once in 34 games - to Wales - and by then wore all black bar the silver fern.

The All Blacks' haka 'Ka Mate' is attributed to which Ngāti Toa war leader?

The pre-match tradition began with the 1888-89 New Zealand Native team's tour; Māori scholars say it is a posture dance, not strictly a war dance.

How many Rugby Championship (formerly Tri Nations) titles did the All Blacks win in its first 30 years?

They won the inaugural 1996 Tri Nations unbeaten; Argentina joined the competition in 2012.

Which trophy has been contested in trans-Tasman tests since the 1930s?

The Calcutta Cup, between England and Scotland, predates it by more than half a century.

Since 1989 the Lions have toured every four years, rotating between which three countries?

The first combined tour was a private commercial venture in 1888; the Lions won the 2025 series in Australia 2-1.

In which year did the Lions win their only test series in New Zealand?

The 1974 series win in South Africa followed; the 2017 New Zealand series was drawn.

Twickenham is affectionately nicknamed after what was grown on the land before the RFU bought it?

It is the world's largest rugby union stadium and, since 2024, officially the Allianz Stadium Twickenham.

In which city is Eden Park, where the All Blacks went 50 tests unbeaten from 1994 to 2024?

It hosted the finals of the 1987 and 2011 men's World Cups and the 2021 women's final.

Rugby league's State of Origin is contested annually between which two Australian states?

Before 1980, players were picked by where they played club football, which left Queensland hopelessly outgunned.

Queensland won a record how many State of Origin series in a row during its 2006-2017 dominance?

The Maroons won 11 of 12 series in that span; the format has been best-of-three since 1982.

In which Scottish town did rugby sevens originate in the 1880s?

The Melrose Sevens is still played every year; the halves in sevens last seven minutes instead of forty.

Which nation won the first Olympic gold medal in men's rugby sevens when the sport debuted in 2016?

Great Britain took silver; sevens had entered the Commonwealth Games in 1998.

Which country won the last two Olympic golds in 15-a-side rugby union?

France won the first, then Australasia; the Americans took gold in 1920 and 1924 and remain reigning Olympic 15s champions.

The first Rugby League World Cup, the first World Cup of either code, was held in 1954 in which country?

It was held only sporadically until settling into a four-year cycle in the 2010s; Australia are the holders as of 2023.

In which position did Jonny Wilkinson play?

He gave up a place at Durham University in 1997 to turn professional with Newcastle Falcons and stayed twelve seasons.

Jonah Lomu was born to immigrant parents from which Pacific nation?

He grew up between rural Tonga and South Auckland and became a cultural icon of the Pasifika community.

Dan Carter was named world player of the year in 2005, 2012 and which other year?

The 2015 award came after he kicked four penalties, two conversions and a drop goal in the World Cup final.

Which country was added to the Tri Nations in 2012, turning it into The Rugby Championship?

Its third-place finish at the 2007 World Cup helped make the case.

Which two countries hosted the men's Rugby World Cups of 2019 and 2023 respectively?

Australia hosts in 2027, the first tournament to include 'Men's' in its official title.

At which Edinburgh ground did Scotland beat England in the first rugby international on 27 March 1871?

Scotland won by one goal and one try to one goal; Ireland and Wales had representative teams by 1881.

Which Wales player led the crowd in the national anthem in response to the All Blacks' 1905 haka?

Welsh Rugby Union administrator Tom Williams suggested the response to the 1905 touring team's pre-match haka.

Which nation won the inaugural Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991?

The Women's Six Nations began in 1996 with just the four home nations.

Which two Cambridge students introduced rugby union to Japan in 1899?

The Japan RFU was founded in 1926, and the country hosted the first Asian Rugby World Cup in 2019.

Which eight countries have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport?

Madagascar has drawn crowds of 40,000 to national matches in the early 21st century.