Ready for some more Expat Living trivia? Sport fans will be salivating at the prospect of the tenth Rugby World Cup, which kicks off in France in September. Running for seven weeks (8 September – 28 October 2023), the tournament will see 20 national teams vying to take home the trophy. How’s your rugby knowledge? See how you fare with our rugby trivia quiz, with a few easy ones about World Cup rugby but also a handful on other aspects of the sport to test even the biggest fan. Good luck!
Try our 20 trivia questions on World Cup rugby, famous players and more!
#1 Who is the current holder of the Rugby World Cup?
#2 What is the name of the trophy awarded to the champions?
#3 How many players take the field on a rugby side?
#4 One team has won all three World Cup rugby finals it has played, and one team has lost all three World Cup finals it has played; who are the teams?
#5 Which legendary New Zealand winger holds the record for the most tries scored at Rugby World Cups, with 15?
#6 If a player gets a yellow card in a World Cup match, how long do they have to leave the field for?
#7 Which country in this year’s World Cup was added to the Five Nations Championship in 2000, making it the Six Nations Championship?
#8 The United States won the inaugural Women’s Rugby World Cup in 1991; which two nations have won every Women’s World Cup trophy since then?
#9 Japan’s national rugby team is sometimes referred to as the Brave what?
#10 Whose dramatic extra-time drop-goal handed England a World Cup victory over Australia in the 2003 final?
#11 Who is easily the leading test try scorer in rugby test matches for Australia?
#12 Rugby Sevens has featured twice as a sport at the Olympic Games; which country won gold in the event both times?
#13 Which country performs the tribal dance known as “Sipi Tau” before playing?
#14 What was the surname of New Zealand’s Governor-General from 1930 to 1935, who promoted the launch of an ongoing rugby union competition between New Zealand and Australia?
#15 What is the name of the stadium in France where this year’s World Cup Final will be played?
#16 What song is the unofficial anthem of the England rugby team?
#17 In what decade did a try in rugby increase in value from 4 points to 5 points?
#18 Who presented the World Cup trophy to South Africa at the end-of-game ceremony in 1995?
#19 Which two prominent rugby nations have team nicknames that relate to the fact that their playing kit is blue?
#20 What is it called when the player carrying the ball and at least one other player from each team are bound together on their feet?
Bonus
Who am I?
(If you can answer correctly on the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require after that.)
- I was born in 1928 in a city called Rosario. (10 points)
- Despite being quite small in stature and with chronic asthma, I starting playing schoolboy rugby at the age of 14, soon developing a reputation as a tough-tackling centre and fly-half. (9)
- I always wore head gear (a scrum cap) when I played, allegedly to protect my good looks! (8)
- One of my early teammates would later take a road trip with me that went on to form the basis of a book and a movie. (7)
- I am known to have said “I love rugby – even if it kills me one day, I am happy to play it”. (6)
- If I’d played for my national side, it would have been Los Pumas. (5)
- In 1957, I started my own rugby magazine; it ran for 11 issues. One edition got me into some hot water with authorities for allegedly spreading communist propaganda. (4)
- That attachment to communist ideas would soon develop rapidly, and I would go on to become one of the leading figures of a major global political movement of the 1950s. (3)
- I died by execution in 1967, after more than a decade of fomenting revolution in Cuba, the Congo, Bolivia and elsewhere. (2)
- I am Ché who, starting with G? (1)
All the answers!
#1 South Africa
#2 The Webb Ellis Cup
#3 Fifteen
#4 South Africa and France
#5 Jonah Lomu
#6 Ten minutes
#7 Italy
#8 New Zealand and England
#9 The Brave Blossoms
#10 Johnny Wilkinson
#11 David Campese (64 tries); the next best is Chris Latham with 40 tries
#12 Fiji (2016 and 2021)
#13 Tonga
#14 Bledisloe (Lord Bledisloe lent his name to the Bledisloe Cup, which is contested annually by the two sides)
#15 Stade de France
#16 “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
#17 1990s (1992)
#18 Nelson Mandela
#19 France (“Les Bleus”) and Italy (“Azzurri”)
#20 A maul
Bonus: Ché Guevara
See our Things to Do section for sport and other activities in Singapore.