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The Best Rugby Drinking Games

Will Brown by Will Brown, April 11, 2025

Rugby ball with beer

Whether you’re a long-time rugby fan or a total newcomer, rugby drinking games provide a great way to compete against your friends through alcohol-based challenges. In this guide to the best games, we’ve provided several options with varying physical requirements. While some can be played as you watch live rugby games, others require you to get up and put your rugby skills to the test. While created for rugby union fans, these games can be adapted for rugby league.

What Are the best Rugby Club Drinking Games?

We’ve committed plenty of research to recommend the best rugby social drinking games, with four different games to enjoy. However, we’ve begun this guide by offering some advice and suggestions to consider before you commence gameplay, from choosing your drinks to doing your research.

From there, we’ve outlined the different games, including two that can be played while watching live games, and three that require some physical involvement. Use the following buttons to jump to each game or keep reading to discover them all.

What to Consider Before You Play Rugby Tour Drinking Games

While you may be rearing to get started on any of these rugby tour drinking games, we need to highlight the importance of safety. The best drinking games are those that are prolonged and memorable, so when choosing your alcoholic beverages, opt for light beer or other low-alcohol options.

Also, be sure to have plenty of water and food on hand to keep you hydrated and prevent sickness. These games can be played by both ardent rugby union fans and total newcomers, though fans will have a huge advantage. If you’re new to the sport, it’s worth researching the game’s rules, events, and positions before playing.

So now, with the formalities addressed, let’s get to our rugby drinking games!

The Rugby Spectator Challenge

Of all the rugby club drinking games on this list, this requires the least physical involvement. Putting a rugby spin on popular spectator drinking games requires you to take drinks when certain events unfold during a live game. All you’ll need is plenty of drinks and a live stream of a rugby game.

Before the game, choose a team to back and fill your cups. Then, stand for the national or club anthems, shake hands with your opponents, raise a toast, and finish half of your drink. Refill your cups, and the game begins…

The following number of sips relate to what happens on the field, on camera, or is heard by the commentators. The rules are as follows:

1 Sip:

  • Conversion
  • Scrum
  • Line out
  • Ruck formed
  • Maul formed
  • Sin bin time ends
  • A player’s weight or size mentioned
  • Reference to a player’s “pace” or “speed”
  • Coach shown looking stressed
  • Mention of a player’s international caps

2 Sips:

  • Penalty kick
  • Knock-on
  • Forward pass

3 Sips:

  • Try scored
  • Drop goal

Finish Half Your Drink:

  • Your team gets a yellow card

Finish Your Entire Drink:

  • Your team gets a red card

Drink Until Event Ends:

  • Slow-motion replay
  • Referee uses TMO
  • The crowd sings the national anthem or team song
  • A player gets medical attention

This game is simple and best played with plenty of friends. Whether it’s for regular league games or during major international tournaments, the spectator challenge is great for its unpredictability. Also, be sure to customize the rules or add your own as you see fit.

The Commentary Box

The Commentary Box is similar to the spectator challenge in that it is played while watching rugby, though it is somewhat more involved. You’ll also need beer, a paper and pen, and a stream of a game to play. If you’re struggling to find one, you can sometimes find live streams of games at the best rugby sportsbooks

The only of these rugby tour drinking games that benefit those with acting chops, Commentary Box sees participants take turns being the game commentator for between two and three minutes each. Commentators must do so continuously for the whole time.

For this reason, it’s best to watch the game with the sound turned down and crowd cheering noises played in the background. It is completely up to you how you require drinks to be drunk by the commentators and the spectators, with those watching acting as the judges. Nevertheless, here are some examples:

The spectators drink when the commentator:

  • Uses classic rugby clichés (e.g., “great hands,” “textbook tackle,” “showing great vision”)
  • Correctly identifies a player by name
  • Correctly explains a referee decision
  • Successfully predicts the next play
  • Performs the role convincingly

The commentator drinks when they:

  • Fall silent for more than three seconds
  • Get a player’s name wrong
  • Misinterpret a referee’s decision
  • Use non-rugby terminology from another sport

Throughout the game, mark how many points each commentator received, taking points for when they had to drink. After all players have had a go, count the scores. Those with the lowest scores must complete a drink.

Position Punishment

Position Punishment is among the best rugby drinking games for die-hard fans of the sport, and is also perhaps the most taxing on the mind. Firstly, it requires sufficient knowledge of the game’s events and positions, with players first required to choose a position. To refresh your memory, here are the 15 positions:

Forwards (1-8)

  • Loosehead Prop
  • Hooker
  • Tighthead Prop
  • Lock (Second Row)
  • Lock (Second Row)
  • Blindside Flanker
  • Openside Flanker
  • Number Eight

Backs (9-15)

  • Scrum-Half
  • Fly-Half
  • Left Wing
  • Inside Centre
  • Outside Centre
  • Right Wing
  • Full-Back

To get started, a player is assigned the role of Captain for a round. They are to have a list of on-field scenarios at hand, which they read out. When they hear a scenario that involves them, they must raise their cup over their head. If a player fails to put their cup over their head within three to five seconds, they must drink.

It’s up to you what players exactly are earmarked for each scenario. Below, we’ve listed the scenarios and the positions that must raise their cups or risk penalty:

  • “Scrum called”: All forwards
  • “Scrum collapse”: Props and front-row forwards
  • “Line-out throw”: Hooker, locks, and second-row forwards
  • “Kick for touch”: Fly-halfs
  • “Up-and-under”: Fly-half and full-backs
  • “Quick tap penalty”: Scrum-half
  • “Box kick”: Scrum-half, wings and full-back
  • “Maul formed”: All forwards
  • “Ruck formed”: Flankers
  • “Turnover at the breakdown”: Flankers
  • “Try-saving tackle”: Full-back and wings
  • “Kick chase”: Wings and fullback
  • “Dummy pass”: Whoever moves their cup up drinks
  • “Counter-attack from deep”: Full-back and wings
  • “Pick and go”: Number 8
  • “Chip kick”: Fly-half and centers

As said, these are just some vague examples, and you will likely want to add your own rules to ensure that both forwards and backs have equal opportunities to drink. Either way, this is among the hardest of the rugby club drinking games to put your knowledge to the test.

Touch the Cup

Another variation on a popular drinking game, Touch the Cup is the most physical of the rugby club drinking games that will benefit those with dexterity, speed, and fast reflexes. To play, you’ll need a rugby ball, plenty of drinks for players, and something to mark out the “Cup”, be it a chair, pole, or circle on the ground.

To get started, players form a wide circle. To begin, a player holding the ball calls another player’s name, and then immediately throws it to them. The receiver then catches the ball, taps the ball to the center pole or marked circle, calls another player’s name, and throws it to them.

The game continues like this until an error is made. This could include dropping the ball, forgetting to touch the “Cup”, hesitating too long, or making a poor pass. The person who made the mistake must drink for their error. Plenty of variations can be made to the game to make it more challenging.

This could include adding different punishment levels to each mistake, with failure to touch the cup being the highest. It could also allow false passes to other players by permitting the call of two names, with the second name being the one who must be thrown to. You could add two balls into the mix, or alternate the order between calling names and touching the cup with every pass.

The best thing about Touch the Cup is that it requires concentration and hand-eye coordination, both of which become impacted as drinking continues. It is also more physically involved, which benefits those who struggle to sit still for too long.

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