Laws updated from 1 July

• Brake foot at scrum becomes full law
• Community tackle height limits added to law – waist or base of the sternum
• Some rare in-goal restarts changed from 22DOs to try-line drop outs for consistency
  • 50+ minor wording amends to make it easier to read laws, tidy up errors/omissions, or remove inconsistencies

From 1 July, the World Rugby Laws have had a bit of a spruce up. This follows the June meeting of World Rugby’s governing Council which meets twice a year to discuss a range of issues impacting rugby around the world.

Four of the previous Global Law Trials have been approved to be moved into full law. Three of those relate to the elite game only, with restrictions on water carriers, the role of the TMO (which has officially been a law trial since 2000!) and the 20min red card replacement. But for the rest of the rugby world, the brake foot by hookers in the scrum is here to stay as well.

The newer global law trials (60 second conversions, protect the 9, non-contested not-straight lineouts) remain as GLTs for another year before decisions are made as to whether they are retained or otherwise.

The community tackle height laws which have been trialled are also now moved into law for the community game. Unions can chose whether to implement a tackle height of the waist, or to the base of the sternum. Those are now reflected in Laws 9, 14 and the Game On variations.

As part of a longer piece of work to tidy up the laws, there’s been a multitude of very minor changes to law wordings, to make things clearer, remove some contradictions, and help readers by removing some need to cross-check with other laws.

Consistency of in-goal restarts

One particular set of scenarios has seen some changing outcomes – when the attack take the ball into in goal but don’t score. The introduction of the goal line drop out in 2021 (now try line drop out) was for three very specific scenarios – ball held up, knock forward in in-goal and balls kicked into IG and grounded. But that left a number of similar scenarios which were therefore still 22DOs.

Two of those are now shifting to become TLDOs to align with the others.-

• If a ball carrier being tackled into touch in goal before scoring, or there’s simultaneous grounding with the touch-in-goal or dead ball lines, that would have been a 22DO. That now becomes a TLDO.

• A charge down from the field of play which goes dead through in-goal was never actually covered in the Laws of the game. It was treated the same as a tactical kick which went dead (ie a 22DO). Now it’s a TLDO.

TLDO => If an attacker carries/plays/kicks the ball into in-goal and doesn’t score (and it becomes dead, obviously), the restarts are all TLDOs.
22DO => Kicks from field of play which go dead through in-goal (with scrum option) or for failed PKs/DGs which go dead or are grounded (no change)
5m attacking scrum => Defenders take back into own in-goal and it doesn’t come out of there!
(no change)

There is a presentation issued by World Rugby for dissemination, as well as the long list – some examples of which are below.

Clarity of laws

The rest of the ‘changes’ are all just tidying up words, or phrases which perhaps weren’t clear, or making the law work for things that referees see or get asked about all the time. So, from now, you should be able to find the answers to all game scenarios without needing an experienced referee to say “it’s just always been refereed this way”, or “it used to say that in 2017”, or “it was in a clarification sometime.”

Examples

• Can a #8 change binds and move across a position during a scrum?
  • It’s clearer now that they can’t. It used to say that all scrum participants “had to maintain their bind for the duration of the scrum. Now law 19.11d says they “have to maintain their bind, in the position they start at, for the duration of the scrum”
• Can a #8 start a scrum binding on a flanker and a second row?
  • some folk took the reading of the law and the picture caption in the law book to say no they couldn’t despite 19.7d saying otherwise. That’s now cleared up that they can.
• What’s a 50:22?
  • The term “50:22” wasn’t ever actually written into the law – just the description of it. Now added to the definitions section with a reference to it in the lineout table in law 18.8a.
• Does a hooker throwing the ball into the lineout have to have their feet on or fully behind the touch line?
  • On the line – It’s been a bone of contention for some, but is now cleared up in law 18.22. Removed a contradiction that was in the role of an Assistant Referee, and aligns with accepted practice that ‘on the line’ = ‘off the field of play’ (in same way a player running down the wing and touches the line is deemed in touch and so off the field of play. Now it’s really clear that their feet touching the line is OK – but they still cant step onto the field.
• Can you tackle in in-goal?
  • Law used to say a tackle could only take place in the “field of play” (which doesn’t include IG). And so, in theory, you could say that you can’t have a dangerous/high tackle in in-goal. Clearly not what was intended. So a small change in the Law 14 principle now makes it clear that you can have a tackle that takes place in in-goal, but that subsequent tackle laws don’t apply.
• Who’s scrum is it at an unplayable ruck?
  • Law used to say that an unplayable ruck resulted in a scrum. But you then had to look up the scrum table to find out who threw the ball in. Law 15.20 now adds that clarity at the end of the sentence (it’s the side last going forward – but you knew that already!)
• Forward pass into touch?
  • A knock on which goes into touch results in a lineout or scrum option. But about a forward pass into touch? The same sanction was accidentally omitted in the 2018 simplification process. It’s now back in 11.6!
• Hands down at a penalty!
  • One of the diagrams has moved – the picture to demonstrate a defender has to keep their arms by their sides during a penalty was in Law 20, but the words to go with it were in Law 8. So that’s where the picture now is!
• u19s scrums when there’s a YC for a back?
  • If a winger, let’s say is Yellow Carded for a deliberate knock on, the law suggested that scrums then had to be reduced to 7 a side. That u19 variation now makes it clear that only if a scrum player is yellow carded/sent off, does the scrum numbers need to be reduced.
• In the elite game, if a player has a blood injury and needs a HIA too, how long can they be off for?
  • The HIA Protocol always said a player could have up to 5mins to stem the bleeding before the HIA must begin. A HIA takes 12 mins, so the law (3.27) now includes that scenario too.

And there’s a fair few more along those lines. See the full list here. Most referees/referee managers had a list of “things that were wrong/missing in the law book”. Speaking to the Laws team at World Rugby, it’s definitely their hope that this suite of tweaks has now removed all/most of those! Some may not like what the laws say, but at least you should now know what they are, or where to find them.

The website, app and pdf download are all updated in English and available from World Rugby – other languages will be updated soon.

Have they missed anything? What would be on your list to make clearer? Let us know at ref@rugbyreferee.net and we’ll feed into World Rugby.