Rugby Union Rules for Beginners: The Laws That Shape Every Phase

Rugby union runs on World Rugby's Laws of the Game: 21 numbered laws, from Law 1 (the ground) to Law 21 (in-goal). You do not need all of them to follow a match. Four ideas explain most of what a referee blows for: the ball may be carried or kicked forward but never passed forward; a tackled player must let the ball go so both sides can contest it; a player in front of the ball is offside and must not interfere; and the referee lets play run on when the team that was wronged is better off continuing.

Scrums, lineouts, rucks, mauls and cards are machinery built around those four ideas. This guide follows the laws as World Rugby publishes them on its laws site in October 2026, including the changes that took effect on 1 July 2026. Points have their own explainer: how rugby scoring works.

A match at a glance

One quirk catches newcomers immediately: a half does not end when the clock reaches 40 minutes. It ends when the ball next becomes dead after time has expired (Law 5.7), so a side in possession can keep attacking for as long as it keeps the ball alive, and a penalty awarded after time is up is still taken.

The four ideas behind most whistles

1. Pass backwards, carry or kick forwards

"Forward" in the laws means towards the opposition's dead-ball line, and the one way the ball may not travel in that direction is out of a player's hands. Law 11 covers both versions:

• Throw forward. A pass that goes forward. World Rugby's definition judges the passer rather than the flight of the ball: it is a throw forward "if the arms of the player passing the ball move forward".
• Knock forward. The old name, still used everywhere, is knock-on. A player loses the ball and it goes forward, or the ball strikes a hand or arm and goes forward, and it touches the ground or another player before the same player can catch it.

Both are routine, and both are punished lightly: the other team throws into a scrum. Two exceptions stop the law punishing honest effort. Charging down an opponent's kick is not a knock forward, and neither is ripping the ball from a ball-carrier so that it goes forward out of their hands (Law 11.5). Doing either offence on purpose, such as deliberately slapping down a pass, is a penalty (Laws 11.3 and 11.7).

Running forward with the ball and kicking it forward are both legal anywhere on the field. That is why so much of the territorial battle is fought with the boot.

2. A tackled player lets the ball go

A tackle happens when the ball-carrier is held and brought to ground (Law 14.1), and from that moment the laws insist the ball be made available. The tackled player must release, pass or push it in any direction except forward and move away. The tackler must let go and get up. Anyone arriving to compete must be on their feet and come from the direction of their own try line (Laws 14.5 to 14.8). Law 13 puts the whole philosophy in one sentence: "The game is played only by players who are on their feet."

When players from both sides close over the ball on the ground, it becomes a ruck and hands are off the ball. When the ball is held off the ground with players from both teams bound around the carrier, it is a maul, which must keep moving towards a try line. Once a team has clearly won a ruck, the referee calls "use it" and the ball has five seconds to come out.

Tackles also have a height limit. The current tackle law, updated after World Rugby's June 2026 Council meeting, names two sanction lines: the line of the shoulders in elite rugby, and the waist or base of the sternum in community rugby (Law 14.1).

3. Stay behind the ball

In open play you are offside if you are in front of a team-mate who is carrying the ball or who last played it (Law 10.1). Being offside is not an offence in itself; interfering is. That means playing the ball, tackling, preventing the opposition from playing as they wish, or simply loitering in an offside position, which World Rugby wrote into the law in July 2024. A player can be offside anywhere on the field.

Breakdowns and set pieces move the line. At a ruck it runs through the hindmost point of anyone in it, at a maul through the hindmost foot, at a scrum the backs stand five metres behind their team's hindmost foot, and at a lineout the players not taking part stand ten metres back. That is why defenders wait in a line beside a ruck instead of drifting in front of it: until the ball comes out, crossing that line is an offence.

4. Advantage keeps the game moving

When a team infringes, the referee does not have to stop play. If the other side gains a "clear and real" benefit, whether tactical, territorial or both, play continues. If it becomes clear the benefit is not coming, the referee blows and goes back to the original offence (Law 7).

A worked example. Team A knocks the ball forward on halfway, and Team B picks it up.

• B's winger runs 30 metres upfield. B has gained territory, the referee judges the advantage taken, and play simply continues; the knock forward is forgotten.
• B's next pass goes to ground two seconds later with no ground made. B has gained nothing, so the referee stops play and awards the scrum B was owed.
• B commits an offence of its own before any advantage arrives. The referee applies the sanction for A's first offence (Law 7.2c).

Some things are never played on: a ball that comes straight out of the tunnel at a scrum, a scrum wheeled through more than 90 degrees, a player lifted out of a scrum, play that would be dangerous to continue and a suspected serious injury are all whistled at once (Law 7.3).

Scrum, free-kick or penalty: reading the sanction

Offences are punished on three levels, and knowing which one you are watching tells you what happens next.

The jump from free-kick to penalty is bigger than it looks. A penalty in range puts three points on offer, or a kick to the corner with your own throw-in. A free-kick offers neither, which is why captains react so differently to the two signals.

How play starts and restarts

• Kick-off. Each half starts with a drop-kick from the centre of halfway, and so does play after every score, taken by the team that conceded. The ball must reach the opponents' ten-metre line.
• Scrum. Eight players a side bind together and contest a ball thrown into the tunnel between them. It is the restart for most minor offences.
• Lineout. When the ball goes into touch, players from each side form two lines and the ball is thrown in straight between them. Who throws depends on who put the ball out and how.
• Drop-outs. A 22-metre drop-out or a try-line drop-out restarts play after certain attacks end in in-goal without a score.