7 Rugby Laws You DIDN’T KNOW Existed

Think you know everything about rugby? Well hold on to your scrum caps because we're going to reveal 7 rugby laws you probably didn't know existed. Number 1. You can't score a drop goal after a free kick scrum. Drop goals are a rare occurrence in modern day rugby and involve a player dropping the ball on the ground before kicking it through the uprights. This moment has defined players careers with famous ones winning world cups such as Johnny Wilkinson in 2003 and Joel Stransky's in 1995, the latter of which was off the back of a scrum. Now this was completely legal as it was a normal scrum taken due to a knock on. However, if your side wins a free kick and then opts for a scrum, it is then illegal to drop kick the ball through the posts. And law 8.29 states, when opting for a free kick, even when a line out or scrum has been opted for instead, the ball must first become dead or the opponent has played the ball, has touched it or has tackled the ball carrier. In the event of this happening, the drop goal does not count and play continues. This could potentially mean that if you knock the ball on in your 22 in the dying minutes of a game, you're winning, say, by two points. You could maybe commit a free kick offence like by through a early engagement or something like that. And then that would mean the opposition would be unable to score a drop goal directly from a following scrum if they opted for one, which would be some interesting shithousery if you ask me. Number two, at a free kick, you can opt for a place kick. Another interesting event around free kicks, and I promise this whole video isn't just about free kicks, is you can actually opt for a place kick. A place kick involves placing the ball on the ground, sand or a kicking tee and kicking the ball downfield that cannot be kicked into touch. This is normally used after a try for a conversion or from a penalty to score a penalty goal. Now, as we previously discussed, you can't score directly from a free kick, so you could only use it for territory gain. And if the ball goes into touch, I'm not entirely sure what happens. It doesn't say in the laws what happened. I couldn't find what happens because no one does this, but I would then assume that the line-out would be where you kicked it from, or maybe it would be a scrum from where you kicked it from. So it's pretty much useless, as most players can punt the ball further and the ball can freely go into touch, but you can still opt for one nonetheless. It would maybe be fun to see someone opt for this in a Babazz game or something like that. Number three, you can score a try while in touch. Now, we've all seen referees stop the clock and go to the TMO to check to see if someone is in touch while scoring a try, for us only to see a player jumping for the line and graze their foot on the touchline and the try be disallowed. But in certain circumstances, you can be in touch and still score. As Law 8.2e states, a player can score a try in touch or in touch and goal, provided the player is not holding the ball. This means that if you, say, kicked the ball ahead of you and then went into touch and placed your hand on the ball to ground it from there, it would count as a try. But if you picked up the ball and then grounded it, the try would not count. This has happened occasionally over the years. You can see it here with George North's try right at the end of the Scarlets v Ospreys game in 2012. He's lying over the dead ball line and touches the ball down in the trystute. Number four, the squad size is dependent on the number of front row replacements. A matchday rugby squad consists of 23 players, but some replacements are more important than the rest. The number of replacement front rows determines the number of substitutes available to the team. If a team has zero replacement front rows, they can have a maximum squad size of 15 players, meaning no replacements. If they have one replacement front row, the squad size increases to 18, meaning they have three substitutes. With a prop and a hooker replacement, it increases to a maximum of 22. And with all three front row positions covered, you can have a maximum squad size available for a rugby union match of 23. Before the match, the team must advise the match officials which players can cover the three front row positions, and only those players can play in the front row. A front row placement is also permitted to start the game in a different position. So like for example, if Fraser Brown has played number six for Scotland a couple times, he could potentially count as a front row replacement at hooker while starting at number six. I learned about this law when I was in high school because I didn't get selected to play for a game because we didn't have enough front row replacements. And that's how I found out about this law, by being left out of the squad. So that was lovely. Number five, you lose an extra player at uncontested scrums. If your team doesn't have an available front row replacement, either due to them not being there or due to sanctions or injuries, the game will continue with uncontested scrums. This is when the two teams form the scrum, but do not push and the team that defeats the ball wins the ball. Uncontested scrums resulted from a sending off, suspension or injury must be contested with eight players from each side. If your side loses a front row player, which results in uncontested scrums being called, then your team cannot replace that player for the rest of the game. If the actions that led to uncontested scrums involved a card or both players left the field, for what's deemed to be a contact injury, the side must lose an extra player. This was seen in the Ireland vs. Italy game in the 2022 Six Nations. This is done to stop teams abusing this system. If a replacement was allowed, a team who was being dominated at the scrum could take off their front rows for an injury and then remove a weapon of the other team with no consequences to themselves. Bristol Bears boss Pat Lamb tried this against Leicester in 2021 before quickly finding a suitable replacement when finding out he would lose a player. Apparently free kicks are mystery in rugby because once again we have another one. But what many people don't know about free kicks, and seemingly many players too, is as soon as the free kick taker takes a step forward, the ball is live. This means that as long as your team is 10 metres away from the ball carrier, you can charge down the kicker as soon as they take one step forward. This is applicable for all free kicks, not just when they call for the mark. And if your team successfully charges down the free kick, you're actually awarded a scrum, so there is a good advantage to doing so. If a ball goes out just before the clock goes beyond the 80 minute mark, or a team kicks for the corner with a penalty when the clock is already in the red, the line-out will still be taken. Normally, in open play, a scrum won't happen as a knock-on would result in the end of a game. But when a scrum is opted for from a squint line-out, when the clock is in the red, the scrum must be taken. This is because the ball hasn't returned to open play yet. And Law 5.7a states, A half ends when the ball becomes dead after time has expired unless a scrum or line-out awarded before time expired has not been completed and the ball has not returned to open play. This includes when the scrum line-out or restart kick is taken incorrectly. Since the scrum is an option after the line-out has been taken incorrectly, the scrum must take place even though 9 times out of 10 it will immediately result in the ball being kicked out. The scrum is a very controversial part of the modern game and you can see my hot take on how I think the scrum can be improved by removing penalties right here. Thanks for watching.