Crossing the line in the air does not by itself put the ball out.

The authority and version used here

This page applies the International Rugby League 2026 International Laws of the Game, effective 1 January 2026. The controlling provisions are Section 1 (playing field), Section 6.3 (tries), Section 8.2–8 (in-goal and set-restart outcomes), Section 9.1–8 (touch and touch in-goal), and Section 16 (match-official duties).

IRL describes its international laws as applying at all levels of the running game. An appointed competition can still issue playing conditions, interpretations or review procedures. NRL, RFL, age-grade, nines, wheelchair and other modified competitions should therefore be checked against their own current documents; this page does not silently blend those rulesets into the IRL baseline.

Each painted line has its own status

• Touch line: the side boundary is in touch; it is not part of the field of play.
• Goal line: the line is part of in-goal. An attacker can score by legally grounding the ball on it.
• Touch-in-goal line: the side boundary behind the goal line is touch in-goal.
• Dead-ball line: the back boundary lies beyond in-goal.

That map comes from the notes to IRL 2026 Section 1. “Dead ball” is also a general glossary term for a ball out of play; “dead-ball line” is the particular line at the back of in-goal.

Contact, not the vertical plane, completes the call

Under Section 9.1, the ball is in touch when the ball, or a player in contact with it, touches the touch line, the ground beyond it, or an object on or outside it. A ball can therefore curve or travel over the sideline in flight and remain live until the required contact occurs.

The point of entry is a separate question. Once the ball is in touch, Section 9.3 locates entry where it first crossed the touch line. That point helps place the restart even though crossing the plane alone did not make the ball out.

The take-off side decides an attempted save

Section 9.1 gives two explicit airborne outcomes:

• A player who jumps from touch and touches the ball while still off the ground makes the ball touch.
• A player who jumps from the field of play may knock the ball back while airborne even after the ball's flight has crossed the touch line; the ball is not touch merely because it crossed that plane.

This is why a replay must show the player's take-off, not only the later position of the ball. Other infringements, such as a knock-on, can still end the play.

Contact with every person or post is not automatically out

First, IRL does not treat another player as an “object.” A ball-carrier who remains in the field is not put in touch merely by contacting an opponent who is standing in touch. The carrier's own boundary contact still matters.

Second, a player tackled in the field does not become touch merely by stepping into touch while regaining their feet to play the ball. Section 9.1 directs the play-the-ball to be taken in the field of play. This narrow exception is not permission for a live, untackled carrier to step out.

The side of in-goal uses the same contact test

Under Section 9.2(a), the ball is touch in-goal when it, or a player in contact with it, touches the touch-in-goal line or an object on or outside that line. The point of entry is where the ball first crossed that side boundary.

If the ball is stationary in in-goal and a player who is touch in-goal contacts it, the law treats that player as having made the ball dead. Responsibility matters: that deliberate contact can produce a different restart from allowing an opponent's kick to bounce on or beyond the boundary.

The dead-ball test is contact at the back boundary

Section 9.2(b) makes the ball dead in-goal when it, or a player in contact with it, touches the dead-ball line or an object on or outside that line. A defender who straddles the dead-ball or touch-in-goal line and plays a general-play kick makes it dead, unless the defender catches the kick on the full.

For the kicking team to be responsible for a kick going dead, the non-kicking team must allow it to bounce on or beyond the dead-ball or touch-in-goal boundary. If a defender reaches across or straddles a boundary and makes the kick dead first, IRL instead directs a goal-line drop-out.

A carrier may touch the post and remain live

The corner post sits at the goal-line/touch-line intersection and is classed as touch in-goal when a loose ball touches it. However, Section 9.2 expressly says a player in possession is not touch in-goal merely because the player contacts the corner post.

Post contact does not protect a foot or body part that touches the touch line, touch-in-goal line or ground beyond. At the corner, officials must distinguish contact with the post from contact with the painted boundary and must establish which came first.

Legal grounding must beat the boundary contact

IRL 2026 Section 6.3 awards a try when an attacker first grounds the ball in the opponents' in-goal while not in touch, touch in-goal, or on or over the dead-ball line. Simultaneous grounding by attacker and defender can also produce a try if that boundary condition is satisfied.

The goal line belongs to in-goal, so grounding on it can score. The touch-in-goal and dead-ball lines cannot. Once the ball has been grounded correctly, a later slide into touch does not undo the try; if the boundary contact came first, it is no try.

How the ball entered touch changes the restart

IRL 2026 Section 9 separates four routes:

• Forward kick out on the full: if the ball is kicked, or rebounds from a player in a forward direction, and enters touch on the full, the result is a handover where that contact occurred, adjusted so the mark is no nearer than 20 metres to touch or 10 metres to a goal line.
• Penalty kick into touch: the kicker's team receives a free kick 10 metres in-field opposite the point of entry.
• Qualifying 40/20 or 20/40: a kick that meets the stated origin, destination and bounce requirements earns the kicking team a tap restart.
• Other ordinary touch: Section 9.7 uses a play-the-ball at the 20-metre mark from touch, opposite entry and not nearer than 10 metres to a goal line, with the stated positional options.

Section 9.8 also protects a player from being disadvantaged merely because the ball accidentally ricochets from them into touch. Officials must distinguish a genuine accidental strike from deliberately playing the ball.

Attacking responsibility usually sends play to the 20

Under Section 8.2, the defending team receives an optional kick from the centre of its 20-metre line when an attacker last touches the ball before it goes over the dead-ball line or into touch in-goal. The listed exceptions include a penalty kick, a halfway kick-off and a goal-line drop-out. The same 20-metre optional restart applies when a defender catches an opponent's general-play kick on the full in their own in-goal.

The ball is immediately in play from the optional kick and the first tackle is a zero tackle. An accidental attacking infringement in in-goal also produces the Section 8.2 restart; a deliberate attacking breach instead produces a penalty 10 metres into the field, in line with the offence.

Defending responsibility usually sends play to the goal line

Section 8.4 orders a goal-line drop-out when, among other stated events, a defender last touches the ball before it becomes dead or touch in-goal, touches down in their own in-goal, is tackled there in possession, or makes a general-play kick dead while straddling an in-goal boundary. A defender who kicks from their own in-goal directly into touch also concedes the goal-line drop-out.

These outcomes are not captured accurately by saying “the defender touched it last.” The full-catch exception produces a 20-metre optional restart, and an intentional defending breach in in-goal can produce a penalty 10 metres into the field instead.

Penalty kicks and set restarts have their own outcomes

If a penalty kick goes dead in the opponents' in-goal, Section 8.3 requires the defending team to take a drop-out from the centre of its 20-metre line. That is different from the ordinary 20-metre optional restart.

A kick-off or drop-out that goes directly over touch, touch in-goal or the dead-ball line is governed by Section 8.6, not the general-play touch law. For the contestable restarts specifically listed in the Section 8 notes, the 2025 amendment carried into the 2026 book substitutes a play-the-ball for the full penalty only when the referee considers the kick genuinely contestable and the failure is going out on the full or not travelling 10 metres. Premature player contact still attracts the full penalty.

A winger saves a ball already outside the plane

Situation: Green jumps from inside the field. While airborne over touch, Green knocks the ball backward into the field before either player or ball contacts the line, outside ground or an outside object.

IRL 2026 ruling: play on, subject to any other infringement. Section 9.1 makes the take-off from the field decisive; the ball's flight over the vertical plane did not alone make it touch.

The ball-carrier clips the corner post

Situation: Blue carries the ball into the opponents' in-goal and brushes the corner post, but no part of Blue or the ball touches the touch-in-goal line or ground outside it. Blue then grounds the ball legally.

IRL 2026 ruling: try. Section 9.2 says post contact alone does not make a player in possession touch in-goal. If Blue's foot had contacted the painted boundary first, the result would instead be no try.

A defender reaches across the dead-ball line

Situation: Red's general-play kick stops just inside Blue's in-goal. Blue keeps one foot in in-goal, puts the other beyond the dead-ball line and touches the stationary ball before it reaches the line.

IRL 2026 ruling: goal-line drop-out. Blue made the ball dead while straddling the boundary; Blue did not make Red responsible simply by adopting an out-of-play position.

The attacking kick is allowed to bounce dead

Situation: Red grubbers through Blue's in-goal. No Blue player touches it and the ball bounces on or beyond the dead-ball line.

IRL 2026 ruling: Blue receives the Section 8.2 20-metre optional restart, with a zero tackle. Red was the attacking team and last touched the ball; Blue allowed the kick itself to become dead.

A tackle finishes in the field, then the player steps out

Situation: Gold is tackled inside the field close to touch and, while regaining their feet for the play-the-ball, steps onto the touch line.

IRL 2026 ruling: Gold plays the ball in the field. This is the express tackled-player exception in Section 9.1, not an ordinary live carry into touch.

How to decide a boundary replay

1. Name the phase. Try attempt, general play, penalty kick, kick-off, drop-out and 20-metre restart do not share one outcome table.
2. Identify the line. Touch, goal line, touch in-goal and dead-ball line have different legal status.
3. Find the first relevant contact. Check the ball, the player in contact with it, the ground and outside objects; do not stop at the vertical plane.
4. Apply the special tests. Look for the tackled-player exception, airborne take-off point, another player, or corner-post contact.
5. For a try, order the events. Legal grounding before the outer boundary can score; outer-boundary contact first cannot.
6. Allocate responsibility. Ask who last deliberately played the ball, whether a defender made it dead, and whether contact was an accidental strike.
7. Select the precise restart. Handover, free kick, tap restart, play-the-ball, 20-metre optional restart, 20-metre drop-out, goal-line drop-out or penalty depends on the route above.

The touch judge's boundary call is controlling

IRL 2026 Section 16 says the referee accepts an official touch judge's decision on touch and touch in-goal. The referee must blow the whistle when the ball has gone out of play. Advantage can apply to an infringement, but it does not keep a ball live after it is legally out.

Video-referee or captain's-challenge procedures are competition rules, not a universal part of the IRL boundary definition. Where review exists, the available protocol decides what can be referred, by whom and at what point.

Five shortcuts that produce the wrong call

• “It crossed the plane, so it is out.” Contact completes the boundary call; crossing later locates the point of entry.
• “Every painted line is out.” The goal line is in-goal and can support a try.
• “Touching the corner post kills the play.” Not when a player is carrying the ball and has not contacted the actual boundary.
• “The last defender to touch the ball always concedes a drop-out.” A clean full catch of an opponent's general-play kick in-goal produces a 20-metre optional restart.
• “Dead in-goal always means a 20-metre restart.” Defender responsibility, a penalty kick and set-restart failures can produce different restarts.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• International Rugby League — 2026 International Laws of the Game, Sections 1, 6, 8, 9 and 16
• International Rugby League — Amendments to International Laws 2026, effective 1 January 2026
• International Rugby League — Section 8 contested-restart amendment, implemented 8 February 2025 and incorporated in the 2026 law book

Checked on 27 August 2026 against the IRL 2026 international law book and the later amendment notices available from the governing body. Competition playing conditions and review protocols may supplement this baseline; check the rules appointed for the match.