Scrum and Lineout Rules in Rugby Union: Set Pieces Explained

The lineout, step by step

Forming it

A lineout forms on the mark of touch, but never within five metres of a try line. Each team makes a single line half a metre from the mark of touch on its own side, between the five-metre and 15-metre lines, and the gap between the lines must stay open until the throw (Laws 18.9 and 18.10). The rules on numbers are where most confusion lives:

• Minimum: two players per team (Law 18.11).
• Maximum: set by the team throwing in. Unless the throw is taken as soon as the lineout forms, the other team may have fewer players in the line, but not more (Laws 18.13 and 18.14).
• Receiver: each team may have one, standing between the five-metre and 15-metre lines and two metres back from its own line (Law 18.16).
• The thrower's opponent: the non-throwing team must have a player between the touchline and the five-metre line, two metres from the mark of touch and two metres from the five-metre line (Law 18.15).

A global law trial that began on 1 January 2025 also requires teams to form the lineout within 30 seconds of the mark being made (Law 18.12).

Lifting and jumping

Lifting is legal, within limits. Lifters may pre-grip a jumper, but not below the shorts from behind or below the thighs from the front. Nobody may jump, lift or support before the ball has left the thrower's hands, and a lifted player must be lowered safely as soon as either team wins the ball. A jumper may catch or deflect with the outside arm only if both hands are above the head (Laws 18.19, 18.20 and 18.29).

The throw

The thrower stands on the mark of touch with their feet on or behind the touchline and must not step into the field of play until the ball has gone. The ball must be thrown straight along the mark of touch towards a lineout player, reach the five-metre line before it touches the ground, and be thrown without delay. Dummy throws and blocking the throw are free-kick offences (Laws 18.22 to 18.25).

The 2025 trial changed what a crooked throw costs. If the defending team does not lift anyone to compete, a throw that is not straight is simply played on. If it does compete, it is offered a lineout or a scrum, and if it chooses the lineout and the second throw is also crooked, the scrum goes to the team that originally threw in (Law 18.23). Both lineout trial clauses are still marked as trials on World Rugby's laws site.

The quick throw

A team does not have to wait for a lineout. The player who carried the ball into touch must release it immediately so a quick throw can be taken, and the throw itself must be made from between the mark of touch and the thrower's own try line, straight across or angled back towards that try line, so that it reaches the five-metre line, by a player with both feet outside the field of play (Laws 18.3 and 18.4). The quick throw is disallowed, and a lineout given to the same team, if the lineout had already formed, if anyone other than the thrower or the player who carried it out has touched the ball, or if a different ball is used (Law 18.5).

The rule that decides both: who may play in the front row

The scrum's specialist roles are written into Law 3, not left to coaches. Before kick-off each team must tell the officials which players can play in the front row and in which positions, and only those players may pack down there when the scrum is contested (Law 3.10).

If a team cannot field a suitably trained front row, scrums become uncontested: still eight players a side, but nobody may push and the team throwing in keeps the ball (Laws 3.13 and 3.15). In elite rugby, or wherever a match organiser chooses to apply it, a player whose departure forces uncontested scrums cannot be replaced, and World Rugby's guidelines can require the team to remove a further player as a sanction (Law 3.17, worded this way since July 2026).

A worked example

Take an elite match with 23-player squads and six front-row players each. Assume a team has already used both replacement props because of injuries, so only its replacement hooker is left on the bench, and that nobody else in its squad is nominated to play tighthead. Its replacement tighthead is then shown a yellow card.

1. At the next scrum the referee asks whether the team can still contest. With no nominated tighthead available, the answer is no, and scrums become uncontested.
2. The carded tighthead caused it, so under World Rugby's uncontested-scrum guideline the team must also nominate a player to leave the field.
3. The remaining replacement hooker comes on to pack down in the uncontested scrums, and another player leaves to make room.
4. For the rest of the ten minutes the team plays with 13. When the period ends, the hooker goes off, and the tighthead and both nominated players return, so contested scrums resume.

One yellow card, two missing players. For a coach, that is the strongest argument there is for carrying prop cover.

Why this matters on a draft board

The front-row table is a hard constraint rather than a preference, and rugby squad rotation over a season shows how it shapes a bench across a long campaign. Rugby positions by number explains what each of the eight forwards does in the set piece, and forwards and backs explains why prop cover is the hardest cover to find.

That logic carries straight into 24-0 Rugby Draft Pro League, where position roles reward building around scrummaging, kicking, speed or defence, and where position fit and depth matter as much as raw rating because a squad that cannot absorb an injury will not survive a 24-match season. The calls and throws described above are the real sport's laws, not a description of the game's match engine. Scoring values for the penalties a set piece can win are in how rugby scoring works, and the rest of the laws series is on the rugby hub.

Player names and historical details appear in the game for informational purposes, and its ratings and salaries are unofficial estimates; it has no tie to any club, union or governing body. More of the studio's management games are listed under sports GM.