Free-flowing rugby is a brilliant spectacle and we have seen some incredibly high-scoring games of rugby, particularly In the last few years. But what exactly is the highest-scoring rugby game ever?
What is the highest-scoring rugby game ever? In 2015, Belgian team Royal Kituro beat Soignies 356-3 in a league game. This is the highest-scoring rugby game on record, as the game was filmed.
It may seem pretty crazy, but there was actually a game between two teams in the top flight of the Belgian league that finished a game with one team coming out 356-3 winners. It seems like a cricket score that should not be possible in rugby but when you look at the details you can see how this incredible score happened.
The two teams were scheduled to play against each other and had both turned up on time. However, the referee that had been allocated for the game did not show up on time and so some of the Soignies players started to go home. The referee finally turned up over an hour after he was supposed to be there.
By the time the game could actually start, Soignies only had 16 players as some of their squad had left the game because they assumed it would be cancelled. However, the game continued on despite Soignies lack of players and the score began to rise rapidly. By the end of the game, Royal Kituro had scored 56 tries and converted 38 of them.
During the game, Soignies essentially let Royal Kituro score at free will. Soignies were very unhappy at the game still going ahead and so therefore they chose to essentially stage a protest by letting the other team score as many points as they wanted. The game finished 356-3 and Soignies still secured the losing point that they would not have gotten if they chose to forfeit the game.
What is craziest about the result is that it left Royal Kituro still one point behind Soignies in the league table despite beating them with the biggest scoreline in the history of rugby.
Highest ever rugby score Six Nations
Unsurprisingly, Italy are involved in the highest ever rugby score in the Six Nations. The batting came in the 2001 Six Nations, with England just two years away from winning the World Cup and it was a very successful Six Nations campaign with England winning the competition thanks to their points difference partly down to the huge win.
England were facing Italy in Round 2 at Twickenham and the England team put on a try-scoring clinic. In total England scored 10 tries with Johnny Wilkinson converting nine of them. They shared the points around, with eight different try scorers getting on the board. Ian Balshaw and Austin Healey were the two players to get a pair during the game.
Italy were able to get a few points on the board themselves, with Carlo Checchinato and Denis Dallan getting on the scoresheet. The game ended 80-23 and this is by far the highest-scoring game in Six Nations history.
Highest Rugby World Cup score
The Rugby World Cup sees the best teams play against each other and the games are often incredibly tight. However, the inclusion of a large number of teams means the difference in ability is often highlighted. This was really the case in the 1995 World Cup when New Zealand faced Japan. The game was never close and it finished 17-145 to New Zealand.
This was an incredibly talented New Zealand team featuring some of the best players the sport has ever seen. They were able to easily glide past Japan in a show of incredible strength. Marc Ellis was the main beneficiary of New Zealand’s dominance. He scored six tries in the game which is still the most tries by a player in a Rugby World Cup game.
Eric Rush and Jeffrey Wilson both got hattricks and New Zealand finished the game with 21 tries, with 20 of them being converted by Simon Culhane. New Zealand looked unstoppable in this game, but they were stopped in this World Cup. The All Blacks would go on to lose in the final to the Springboks.
Most Points in a rugby game by one player
While there have been some incredible performances in rugby, World Rugby acknowledges one individual performance above the rest. In qualifying for the 2003 World Cup, Japan defeated Chinese Taipei 155-3. That meant there were like to be some pretty incredible individual performances in that game.
Toru Kurihara had the most incredible individual performance, scoring 60 points in total which is the most in a rugby game by one player. The Japanese winger scored six tries and added 15 conversions to finish the game with 60 points of his own. This record still holds today.
The funniest part about this story is that Japan successfully qualified for the World Cup and at the World Cup, they were on the end of the most points in a game by a single player at a World Cup.
Most Points in a Rugby World Cup game by one player
The most points scored by a single player in a Rugby World Cup game is 45. This was done by Simon Culhane in a group-stage game against Japan. In the 1995 World Cup New Zealand faced off against Japan in the group stage. This was a very talented New Zealand team, despite the fact that they shuffled the pack.
Fly-half Simon Culhane had been on the bench for the first two games of the group stage but he was promoted to the starter when the All Blacks shuffled things around. This worked out really well for Culhane as he was able to write himself into rugby history.
The game finished 145-17 which is the highest-scoring game in Rugby World Cup history, so it makes a lot of sense that the highest individual points performance came in the same game. Culhane finished on 45 points thanks to 20 conversions and added a try of his own, one of the All Blacks’ 21 tries on the day.