Rugby Scoring Possibilities Trivia Quiz

Answer: 3-0

1-0 is absolutely impossible, as there are no rugby plays that account for a single point. Although a conversion goal is worth 2 points, a conversion can only be scored after a try. That leaves us with 3-0, which simply requires a penalty goal to reach that scoreline.

Answer: No

There is no possible combination of plays that include a try and amount to 6 or 9 points.

Let's take the case of the losing team. If they had scored a try, they would have 5 points and, as there's no single point play, there would be no way for them to reach 6 points after scoring a try.

Now let's look at the winning team. If they scored a try and a conversion goal, they would have 7 points, but there is no way for them to score 2 more to get to 9 points. And even if they had failed the conversion, they would have 5 points, and need 4 more to get to 9, which is also impossible to get.

The only possible way for a match to go 9-6 at a given moment is by scoring penalty goals (3 by the winning team and 2 by the losing team).

Answer: B

Team A:
3 tries = 15 points
3 conversions = 6 points
That adds up to 21 points.

Team B:
1 try = 5 points
1 conversion = 2 points
5 kicks = 15 points
That adds up to 22 points.

Although the try is the highest scoring play of the game, several matches end up being decided by kicking accuracy. It's no surprise then that, generally, the top scorers of every tournament are the teams' kickers, rather than the try-scorers.

Answer: No

As successful kicks at goal are worth 3 points, any team that scored all of their points that way, will end up with a score that is a multiple of 3.

A converted try (try + conversion) is worth 7 points. If the rest of the points from that team come from kicks at goal, it would be a multiple of 3 as we just saw, but when adding the previous 7 points, the total score will NOT be a multiple of 3, regardless of how many kicks are scored. So, if a team scores a converted try, and the rest of the points come from kicks at goal, there will be definitely a winner.

Answer: 4

There are multiple combinations of tries/conversions on one side, and kicks on the other, that amount to the same total points. For example, 3 converted tries would draw against 7 kicks, as they both add up to 21 points.

The lowest possible draw that could come up from such a match would be a 12-12, with the first team scoring two tries and converting only one of them, and the other team scoring 4 penalty goals.

Answer: None of the tries are converted

Scoring both tries, but missing both conversions, would leave the team with 10 points. Two penalty goals would give them the required points to reach 16.

If one try is converted and the other is not, that leaves them with 12 points, and if both are converted, they would have 14 points, requiring 2 or 4 points, respectively, to reach 16. There is no way to score either number through independent plays.

Answer: Only one penalty goal was scored by each team

Since none of the scores are exact multiples of 3, there must have been at least one try (converted or not) by each of the teams.

If the winning team scored two converted tries, that would give them a score of 14, needing 9 points to reach 23. Those points could come from three penalty goals, so it's technically possible.

If the losing team scored three penalty goals they would have 9 points, and the remaining 10 points could have come by scoring two tries (and missing both conversions). Again, it's possible.

The only option that couldn't have happened is that each team scored exactly one penalty goal each (3 points). The winning team would need 20 more points for their final score, and that could be achieved by 4 tries that weren't converted - however, the losing team would need 16 more points, and there's no possible way to score that number without at least one more penalty goal.

Answer: Not scoring any tries

There are three possible scoring combinations that amount for 19 total points:

- A try (5 points), a conversion (2 points) and 4 penalty goals (12 points);
- 3 tries (15 points) and 2 conversions (4 points) - no penalty goals;
- 2 tries (10 points), no conversions, and 3 penalty goals (9 points).

Not scoring any tries also implies not scoring any conversions. That leaves penalty goals as the only scoring method, and as they are worth 3 points each, it is impossible to reach 19 points under these circumstances.

Answer: 2

A way to solve this problem is as follows:

We start off with 20 points coming from the four tries scored. For every conversion, 2 more points are added, which would give us the following numbers:
* 4 tries + no conversions = 20 points
* 4 tries + 1 extra conversion = 22 points
* 4 tries + 2 extra conversions = 24 points
* 4 tries + 3 extra conversions = 26 points
* 4 tries + 4 extra conversions = 28 points

Next, we'll substract each score from the 45 final points:
* 45 - 20 = 25
* 45 - 22 = 23
* 45 - 24 = 21
* 45 - 26 = 19
* 45 - 28 = 17

As the only remaining way to score are penalty goals, each worth 3 points, the difference has to be a multiple of 3, so the only possible option is the third one (21). The 45 points were scored by 4 tries (20 points), 2 conversion goals (4 points) and 7 penalty goals (21 points).

Answer: No

Penalty tries are not too common, partly because in some cases it depends on the referee's judgement. Basically, if they deem the try to be highly probable, and that it has been illegally stopped by the defending team, he signals for a penalty try and usually issues a yellow card to the player who committed the offense.

When this happens, the attacking team are granted 7 points automatically, representing the try that has been prevented, plus its corresponding conversion. They don't get an extra conversion kick in this situation.