A penalty, free kick, and tap restart are three different decisions.

What each restart means

A penalty kick is awarded to the non-offending team for misconduct and for other breaches that the laws say carry a penalty. It starts from a mark identified by the referee and gives the team several tactical choices.

A free kick is not a general name for every unopposed kick. In the IRL law book, it is the restart awarded after a penalty kick enters touch without touching another player. A tap restart is the restart after a successful 40–20 or 20–40 kick. The event before the restart tells you which law applies.

When a penalty is awarded

Section 13 of the 2026 IRL laws provides for a penalty against a player guilty of misconduct, unless allowing an immediate advantage is better for the non-offending team. Penalties also appear throughout the law book as the specified result for offences such as deliberate or interfering offside, dangerous contact, obstruction, and particular restart or scrum breaches.

Not every error is a penalty. An accidental knock-on may produce a scrum or handover, and qualifying play-the-ball interference can produce six again under the applicable competition rules. Officials first identify the offence, then apply the restart attached to that offence.

Where the penalty is taken

The usual mark is where the offence occurred. A player can kick from the mark or from a point behind it on a line parallel to the touch line. This allows the kicker to move backwards, including to prepare a kick at goal, but not sideways to create a better angle.

Special cases move the mark. For misconduct in touch, it is brought 10 metres into the field. For an offence by a defender in their own in-goal, or by an attacker in the opponents' in-goal, it is brought into the field 10 metres from the goal line, opposite the offence. Obstruction involving a kick can use a mark where the ball next bounces or is caught, or another position specified by the law, when that gives the non-offending team the greater advantage.

What the team can do with a penalty

A penalty kick may be punted, drop-kicked, or place-kicked. Unless the team is taking a kick at goal, it may be kicked in any direction and the ball is in play after the kick. The kicker is allowed to regather it. That creates three familiar choices:

• Restart quickly: use a short legal kick and regather the ball to attack before the defence is organised.
• Seek touch: kick for the touch line to gain territory and, if the ball enters touch cleanly, receive the subsequent free kick.
• Attempt a penalty goal: declare the attempt and kick for two points from the mark or farther back on the same line.

Once a player has told the referee that the team will kick at goal, pretending to do so and then kicking elsewhere is misconduct.

A differential penalty cannot score a goal

The 2026 IRL glossary retains the differential penalty. It differs from an ordinary penalty kick in one decisive respect: the team cannot score a goal directly from it. The referee uses a distinct repeated arm signal to communicate that restriction.

Because scrum sanctions and competition interpretations have changed over time, viewers should rely on the referee's signal and the rules in force for that match rather than assume that every scrum penalty is differential. If the decision is differential, the team can use the permitted non-goal options but cannot take the two-point attempt.

What spectators call a “quick tap”

Players and commentators often call a short, self-regathered penalty a quick tap. In strict IRL terminology, it remains a penalty kick; it is not the defined tap restart used after a 40–20 or 20–40.

The referee must give the team the mark, the kick must be taken legally, and the kicker's teammates must be behind the ball. A quick kick does not automatically let defenders ignore the 10 metres. Opponents who have not had time to retire are expected not to interfere until the advantage gained by their position has been lost. Deliberate interference can bring another penalty.

How the 10-metre requirement works

At a penalty, opponents must retire towards their own goal line until they are at least 10 metres from the mark, or stand on their goal line if it is closer. They cannot interfere with or distract the kicker and may advance once the ball has been kicked.

The same basic retirement protection applies to the free kick after a penalty finds touch. Taking either kick quickly may catch defenders before they have completed the retreat, but it does not give those players permission to affect play. Officials judge whether a defender interfered and whether any positional advantage from failing to retire has genuinely disappeared.

What happens after a penalty finds touch

If a penalty kick goes into touch without touching another player, the kicking team restarts with a free kick 10 metres in-field, opposite the point of entry. Opponents retire the required 10 metres or to their goal line. The ball may be kicked in any direction and in any manner, and the kicker may regain it.

This is effectively the second stage of the penalty-to-touch sequence: the first kick gains territory and the free kick brings the ball back into play. A goal cannot be scored directly from the free kick, and the team cannot gain another block of territory simply by kicking the free kick into touch on the full. If time expires after the penalty is kicked into touch, the international timekeeping law extends the period so the team can take this second kick.

Why every penalty kick into touch does not earn a free kick

The clean-touch requirement matters. If the penalty kick touches an opponent in flight and then enters touch, the 2026 international law uses a play-the-ball for the kicking team 20 metres in from touch rather than the free-kick restart.

The sequence is therefore decided by the ball's flight: straight from the penalty kicker into touch means a free kick; contact with an opponent before touch means the separate touched-in-flight outcome. Officials use the touch judge and any available permitted review process to establish the point of entry and whether there was a touch.

How a 40–20 or 20–40 restarts play

A successful 40–20 or 20–40 is a kick in general play that begins in the kicker's prescribed zone, bounces before crossing touch, and finds touch in the required zone at the other end. The reward is possession and a tap restart rather than the ordinary touch restart.

The mark is 20 metres in from the touch line, in line with where the ball first crossed it, but no closer than 10 metres to the goal line. To take the restart, the player keeps the ball in their hands and touches it with the foot. The ball is then in play.

Why the 40–20 tap cannot always be taken immediately

The 2026 IRL note requires the referee to blow the whistle before a 40–20 or 20–40 tap restart is taken. Before doing so, the referee gives the defending team a reasonable time to get into position and waits until the match officials are ready.

That control prevents the kicking team from taking the reward while the touch judge is still confirming the point of entry or the defence has had no fair chance to form. It is a key difference from a quickly taken penalty: the successful territorial kick does not create an unrestricted instant tap.

Breaches can reverse the advantage

If the penalty is not taken in the permitted way, or the kicker's team infringes, the international law provides for a scrum to the other team at the mark, subject to the law's positioning limits. A teammate in front of the kick is one example of a breach.

At the free kick, a breach by the kicking team also leads to a scrum under the specific free-kick provisions. A breach by the opposing team can produce another penalty 10 metres beyond the original mark on the line prescribed by the law. Officials should explain the offence and identify the new restart.

The whistle is not the only consequence

A referee can allow play to continue instead of immediately awarding the penalty when the benefit to the non-offending team is readily obvious. The decision to play advantage does not prevent later disciplinary action against the offender.

Further misconduct by the offending team after a penalty can move the mark once by 10 metres towards that team's goal line. Delaying the kick, refusing to surrender the ball, throwing or kicking it away, repeated offending, or foul play can also be managed or disciplined under the relevant misconduct provisions. The penalty restart and any personal sanction are separate decisions.

Reading common match situations

• Offside defender in midfield: the referee awards a penalty at the applicable mark. The team may restart short, seek touch, or attempt a penalty goal.
• Penalty punt goes straight into touch: the same team takes a free kick 10 metres in-field opposite the point of entry.
• Penalty punt clips an opponent before touch: the clean-touch free-kick rule does not apply; the 2026 IRL outcome is a play-the-ball to the kicking team.
• Legal 40–20: the kicking team receives a tap restart at the prescribed in-field mark, after the referee has allowed a reasonable setup time and blown the whistle.
• Player takes the 40–20 tap before the whistle: the restart has not been properly authorised and the referee manages it under the restart procedure rather than treating the early action as live play.

Where the terminology causes confusion

• “Free kick means penalty”: not in the IRL law book. The free kick is the second kick after a penalty kick finds touch cleanly.
• “A penalty automatically scores two points”: no. Two points are scored only if the team chooses and completes a successful penalty goal.
• “Every short restart is a tap restart”: no. A quick short penalty is still a penalty kick; the defined tap restart follows a 40–20 or 20–40.
• “The defence may tackle from five metres because the kick was quick”: no. The penalty and free-kick retirement distance is 10 metres or the goal line.
• “A 40–20 tap must be allowed instantly”: no. The referee gives a reasonable setup period and restarts on the whistle.
• “Penalty to touch restarts with a lineout”: no. Rugby league uses a free kick under this law, not rugby union's lineout procedure.

Check the rules used by the match

This page uses the 2026 International Rugby League Laws as its baseline. The RFL published that law book for 2026. The NRL, international tournaments, community leagues, age-grade games, wheelchair rugby league, and other modified formats may add competition interpretations, time limits, field dimensions, or alternative restart procedures.

The safest method is to identify the governing body and season before applying a detail from one competition to another. A broadcast phrase such as “tap,” for example, may describe how a player restarts without using the IRL glossary term tap restart.

Rules and effective versions

• International Rugby League Laws of the Game, 2026 edition — glossary definitions; Section 6 on scoring; Section 9 on touch and tap restarts; and Section 13 on penalty and free kicks.
• International Rugby League laws hub — the governing body's current law-book download.
• IRL amendments effective 1 January 2026 — confirmation of the effective 2026 international version.
• Rugby Football League Laws of the Game, published 26 January 2026.
• NRL rules and laws hub — check the competition material in force for an NRL match.