Rugby Trivia
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This rugby trivia quiz has 48 free questions with answers and covers both codes and every level of the game. It opens with the basics - how many players, what a try is worth, why the ball is oval, what a hooker does - then the origin story: the Webb Ellis legend at Rugby School, the 1871 founding of the RFU, and the 1895 split in Huddersfield that created rugby league. From there it goes international: the Rugby World Cup and its winners, the 1995 final that Nelson Mandela made unforgettable, the Six Nations and its trophies (the Calcutta Cup, the Grand Slam, the Wooden Spoon), the All Blacks and the haka, the British and Irish Lions, State of Origin, sevens at the Olympics, and the great players from Jonah Lomu to Richie McCaw, Jonny Wilkinson, Dan Carter and Siya Kolisi. Roughly a third of the questions are easy warm-ups for casual fans; the rest climb toward genuine pub-quiz stumpers. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which rugby union players wear shirt numbers 1 to 8?
The forwards
The forwards wear 1 to 8 and the backs 9 to 15. Leicester long put letters on its shirts instead, until English Premiership rules forced the club to switch to numbers in 1998.
Q 02Which kick at goal follows a try in rugby union?
Conversion
A conversion is taken in line with the spot where the try was touched down. That is why players who cross near the corner often run round towards the posts before grounding the ball.
Q 03Which restart follows every tackle in rugby league?
A play-the-ball
A play-the-ball: the tackled player stands, puts the ball down and rolls it back with a boot. After six tackles the ball goes to the other side, so teams usually kick on the fifth.
Q 04By legend, how did William Webb Ellis invent rugby in an 1823 school match?
Picking up the ball and running with it
Picking up the ball and running with it: the tale rests on one man's account from 1876, four years after Webb Ellis died, and many historians call it a myth. The World Cup trophy bears his name anyway.
Q 05In which English county is Rugby School, where the game was supposedly born?
Warwickshire
Warwickshire: the school stands in the town of Rugby, which gave the game its name, and in 1845 three of its pupils wrote down the game's first rules.
Q 06In 1860s rugby, what did 'hacking' mean?
Kicking opponents' shins
Kicking opponents' shins: Blackheath left the Football Association in 1863 to keep hacking, its delegate warning the game would lose its courage and pluck, yet the club banned it within a few years.
Q 07Where in West Yorkshire did the 1895 split that created rugby league take place?
Huddersfield
Huddersfield: at its George Hotel, northern clubs quit the Rugby Football Union so they could pay working men for wages lost by playing, the so-called broken-time payments.
Q 08In a rugby union scrum, which player wins the ball by striking it back with a foot?
The hooker
The hooker, usually the shortest forward, hangs between the two props and rakes the ball back with a foot. The same player throws in at line-outs, where the tallest forwards jump for it.
Q 09The first Rugby World Cup in 1987 was co-hosted by which two countries?
New Zealand and Australia
New Zealand and Australia had each proposed a world cup separately, then joined forces. Rugby's board approved the idea in 1985, with Ireland and Scotland voting against.
Q 10Which nation stunned South Africa 34-32 at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in a match dubbed the 'Brighton Miracle'?
Japan
Japan had won just one World Cup match in its history, against Zimbabwe in 1991. Its captain turned down a kick that would have earned a draw, and Karne Hesketh scored the winning try in the final move.
Q 11Which England captain lifted the Rugby World Cup in 2003?
Martin Johnson
Martin Johnson. The Leicester lock had learned his trade in New Zealand, spending two seasons with the King Country province before coming home to lead England.
Q 12Who kicked the extra-time drop goal that won the Springboks the 1995 World Cup final 15-12?
Joel Stransky
Joel Stransky scored all 15 of the Springboks' points in the final. Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok shirt, then handed the trophy to captain François Pienaar.
Q 13Why had the Springboks never competed in a Rugby World Cup before hosting in 1995?
It had been excluded during apartheid
Q 21In the Six Nations, what is a team said to have won if it beats all five opponents?
The Grand Slam
The Grand Slam. Since bonus points arrived in 2017, a side that wins all five games gets three extra points, so it can never be overtaken by a team it has beaten.
Q 22Which rugby trophy was made in 1878 from the melted-down silver coins of a club that had just folded?
The Calcutta Cup
The Calcutta Cup: when the Calcutta Football Club wound up, its members had the last 270 silver rupees in the bank melted into a trophy for England and Scotland, topped with an elephant.
Q 23Which Ireland great retired in 2014 as the Six Nations' record try scorer?
Brian O'Driscoll
It had been excluded during apartheid, missing the 1987 and 1991 tournaments under the sports boycott. Readmitted to world rugby in 1992, the Springboks won the cup at their first attempt, at home.
Q 14Jonah Lomu ran straight over which England player in a 1995 World Cup semi-final?
Mike Catt
Mike Catt was flattened in the opening minutes as the 20-year-old Lomu set up a 45-29 New Zealand win. Catt had the last laugh, winning the World Cup with England eight years later.
Q 15Jonny Wilkinson's winning drop goal in the 2003 World Cup final in Sydney came against which team?
The Wallabies
The Wallabies, the hosts and holders, had levelled at 17-17 late in extra time. Wilkinson then struck the winning drop goal with his right foot, seconds from the end.
Q 16Richie McCaw retired in 2015 holding the world record for most what?
Test caps
Most test caps: 148 in all. When McCaw was first chosen after a single provincial season, former All Black Josh Kronfeld complained that jerseys were being handed out too easily.
Q 17In which position did Richie McCaw predominantly play?
Openside flanker
Openside flanker: McCaw played the 2011 World Cup knockout rounds on a fractured foot, choosing not to have it X-rayed again until the trophy was won.
Q 18Dan Carter played Super Rugby for which New Zealand team?
The Crusaders
The Crusaders. Carter, who left test rugby in 2015 as its record points scorer, won titles with the Christchurch side, which reached the 2011 final after an earthquake wrecked its stadium.
Q 19Which two opponents did Siya Kolisi's Springboks beat in the 2019 and 2023 Rugby World Cup finals?
England, then New Zealand
England, then New Zealand: 32-12 in 2019 and 12-11 in 2023. The second was won by a single point after All Blacks captain Sam Cane was sent off before half-time.
Q 20What was Europe's annual championship called when it began in 1883 with England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales?
The Home Nations
The Home Nations Championship became the Five Nations when France joined in 1910. France was thrown out in the 1930s over claims its players were paid, and the old name returned until 1947.
Brian O'Driscoll scored 26 championship tries. Three came in one afternoon in Paris in 2000, when his hat-trick gave Ireland its first win there since 1972.
Q 24Which nation joined the Six Nations in 2000?
Italy
Italy won its very first game in the championship, 34-20 in Rome against reigning champions Scotland, then lost every other match that season.
Q 25The 1905 'Original' All Blacks lost only one match on their tour of Britain, 3-0 to which nation?
Wales
Wales won 3-0 in Cardiff, and New Zealanders have argued ever since that Bob Deans scored a try the referee wrongly ruled out. Before kick-off the crowd answered the haka by singing the Welsh anthem.
Q 26Which haka, composed by Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha, have the All Blacks performed for more than a century?
Ka Mate
Ka Mate is said to celebrate Te Rauparaha's escape from pursuing enemies while he hid in a food-storage pit. The All Blacks added a second haka, Kapa o Pango, in 2005.
Q 27In rugby union, what is the offence called when a player fumbles the ball forward off the hands?
A knock-on
A knock-on: the ball may never be lost forward, so the fumble stops play and hands the other side the put-in at a scrum.
Q 28Which trophy has been contested in trans-Tasman tests since the 1930s?
The Bledisloe Cup
The Bledisloe Cup was donated by Lord Bledisloe, New Zealand's governor-general. Australia won it five years running from 1998, then lost it in 2003 and had still not won it back by 2025.
Q 29Since 1989, the Lions have toured which three countries in rotation?
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, each visited once every twelve years. The very first tour, in 1888, was a private venture run by professional cricketers with no backing from rugby's authorities.
Q 30Which Welshman, nicknamed 'The King', inspired the 1971 Lions' series win in New Zealand?
Barry John
Barry John scored 30 of the Lions' 48 points in the tests, their only series win in New Zealand up to 2025. A year later he retired at 27, saying the fame had become too much.