Beer found around South Africa game generally (2,1,4)
I believe the answer is:
as a rule
'generally' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'beer found around south africa game' is the wordplay.
'beer' becomes 'ale' (type of beer).
'found around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'south africa' becomes 'SA' (abbreviation).
'game' becomes 'RU' (rugby union).
'sa'+'ru'='saru'
'ale' going around 'saru' is 'AS A RULE'.
(Other definitions for as a rule that I've seen before include "in the main" , "Mainly" , "26 [NORMALLY]" , "none straighter" , "In most cases" .)