{"id":712283,"date":"2026-06-03T09:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712283\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T09:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:32:12","slug":"world-rugby-issues-law-clarification-after-new-zealand-rugby-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712283\/","title":{"rendered":"World Rugby issues law clarification after New Zealand Rugby request"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

World Rugby have issued a law clarification after a request from New Zealand Rugby, who sought clarity around a scrum-half\u2019s actions at the ruck.<\/p>\n

It is by no means an uncommon occurrence for unions to request clarity on the laws and their application from the governing body, with Italy and France both lodging requests in 2025. The former did so after South Africa\u2019s controversial first action in the Test between the Springboks and Italy when Manie Libbok purposefully didn\u2019t punt the kick-off the required 10 metres.<\/p>\n

Andre Esterhuizen was also in front of Libbok when he did so, with the incident resulting in a scrum. The Italian Federation questioned whether this was in the \u2018spirit of the law\u2019 and suggested that South Africa\u2019s actions contravened Law 9.7(a), which states: \u201cA player must not intentionally infringe any law of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby\u2019s request to World Rugby<\/p>\n

World Rugby subsequently agreed with the Italians<\/a>, and while that was a high-profile incident that stirred much debate, New Zealand Rugby\u2019s request for clarity concerns an action that happens in every single professional match.<\/p>\n

\u201cNZRU have asked: Are the actions of a scrum half moving beyond the back foot of the ruck and moving the ball with their hands consistent with Ruck laws?\u201d A statement from the governing body read.<\/p>\n

What NZ Rugby<\/a> is essentially asking is whether it\u2019s within the laws for a scrum-half to use their hands in a ruck to move the ball to the back of a ruck and play the ball away from the breakdown.<\/p>\n

World Rugby confirmed that the relevant Laws are:<\/p>\n

Offside at a ruck \u2013 15.4: \u201cEach team has an offside line that runs parallel to the try line through the hindmost point of any ruck participant. If that point is on or behind the try line, the offside line for that team is the try line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring a ruck \u2013 15.11: Once a ruck has formed, no player may handle the ball unless they were able to get their hands on the ball before the ruck formed and stay on their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

World Rugby\u2019s<\/a> response read: \u201cThe laws referenced should be read alongside the Playing Charter which is a part of the Laws of the Game. Together, they seek to establish \u2018the essential balance between continuity of play and continuity of possession.\u2019The Charter stresses the equal importance in Rugby Union of both \u2013 with nine references to \u2018contest\u2019 and eight references to \u2018continuity\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the context the request, the rucks defined suggest a contest for possession is over, the ball secured and then the half back (or player fulfilling that role) is then playing the ball away to ensure continuity. The laws highlighted focus on the contest for possession. Match officials must apply the laws in the context of the Charter as well.<\/p>\n

Top New Zealand referee claims World Rugby officials are \u2018aligned\u2019 despite differing law trials<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the actions of the scrum half\/half back do appear to contravene the pure law wordings, there is no material offence caused and so match officials are ensuring match continuity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Speeding up the game<\/p>\n

To break it down simply, when the contest for possession is over, referees should allow the halfback or scrum-half to use their hands to get the ball to the back of the ruck to ensure that the flow of the game is not interrupted.<\/p>\n

\"Stormers<\/p>\n

Stormers scrum-half Imad Khan using his hands to get the ball out of a ruck versus Cardiff (VIA URC TV).<\/p>\n

Previously, halfbacks were forced to use their feet to rake the ball back and out of the ruck, which slowed the game down and if they weren\u2019t able to, the referee would deem the ball \u2018unplayable\u2019 and award a scrum to one of the teams \u2013 whichever one was the last to go forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would remind match officials that this should only be applied when the contest is clearly over; and of the previous Guideline in March 2024 around calling \u2018Use it\u2019 as soon as the ball has been \u2018clearly won by a team at the ruck and is available to be played.\u2019 This reduces the time for extra players to add themselves to the ruck,\u201d World Rugby further explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe request World Rugby closely monitor this area of the game so objective data can be brought to the next Shape of the Game discussions for wider consideration, and for possible future law change discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Ben O\u2019Keeffe wants World Rugby to \u2018innovate\u2019 by exploring \u2018important avenue\u2019 that fans will \u2018love\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Rugby have issued a law clarification after a request from New Zealand Rugby, who sought clarity around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,1736,44,20248,760,85,29898,68429,134441,12907],"class_list":["post-712283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby","tag-top-14","tag-united-rugby-championship","tag-world-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}