A sevens scrum is a six-player contest, not an uncontested restart.

Scope and version

This page applies the World Rugby Laws of the Game 2026, principally Laws 7, 9 and 19 together with the Sevens variation to Law 19. It describes the standard World Rugby form of seven-a-side rugby, not rugby league sevens, touch rugby or a local modified game.

World Rugby's July 2026 amendments apply to new competitions or events starting after 1 July 2026. A league already under way may use its union's chosen implementation date. The live Law 19 page also continues to mark the defending scrum-half restriction in 19.30 as a Global Law Trial, first introduced for new competitions starting after 1 January 2025.

Why a scrum is given

Law 19 calls a scrum a restart with a contest for possession after a minor infringement or stoppage. A knock forward or throw forward in the field of play normally gives the non-offending team the throw. Law 19.1 also specifies less obvious awards: after an unplayable tackle or ruck the team last moving forward throws in, while after an unsuccessful maul the team that did not have possession when the maul began normally throws in.

A penalty can be converted into a scrum option, but a free-kick cannot: World Rugby removed the scrum option from a free-kick from 1 July 2024. The referee fixes the mark in the scrum zone; the exact mark and throwing team depend on the event listed in Law 19.1.

Three players per team, all bound

Sevens Law 19.5 replaces the eight-player formation with three players from each team and requires all three to remain bound until the scrum ends. The two props bind to the hooker, and the hooker binds with both arms. A missing player or an early unbind is therefore not a harmless adjustment: the stated sanction is a penalty.

The Sevens variations delete the ordinary Law 19 provisions for locks and back-row players. There is no flanker or number eight in a standard sevens scrum, so there is no number-eight pick-up. Reducing a team to six players through a card does not reduce its scrum to two; Law 19.5 still requires three from each team.

Ready within 15 seconds

The referee marks a middle line parallel to the try lines. The Sevens replacement for Law 19.4 requires both teams to be ready to form the scrum within 15 seconds of that mark. The sanction for failing to be ready is a free-kick.

“Ready” is not permission to engage early. The front rows begin on opposite sides of the mark, parallel to the middle line and no more than an arm's length apart, with the hookers at the mark. They then follow the referee's controlled sequence.

Crouch, bind, set—then wait for the ball

1. Crouch: both sides must be square, stable and stationary. Heads and shoulders stay no lower than hips, and each hooker uses a brake foot for stability.
2. Bind: each prop grips the back or side of the opposing prop's jersey in the prescribed loose-head or tight-head bind. Binding must be maintained.
3. Set: only on this call do the hookers remove the brake foot and the front rows engage. Players must have their feet and body position ready to push.
4. Throw: the scrum still has not begun merely because the packs are engaged. Law 19.16 says it begins when the ball leaves the scrum-half's hands, and only then may either team push.

Straight does not mean perfectly centred feet

The scrum-half may choose either side. Once the scrum is square, stable and stationary, Law 19.15 requires a throw from outside the tunnel, without delay, in one quick forward movement, straight, and so the ball first touches the ground inside the tunnel.

The law expressly permits the scrum-half to align one shoulder on the middle line, placing the thrower a shoulder-width closer to their own side. That allowance does not remove the requirement to throw straight.

Both hookers may contest

Either front row may gain possession by pushing straight and parallel to the ground or by striking after the ball touches the ground in the tunnel. A player may strike with either foot, but not both at once. The hooker on the throwing team must strike for the ball; failure to do so is a free-kick under Law 19.22.

Players inside the scrum may play the ball only with feet or lower legs and must not lift it. Handling or lifting the ball is a penalty. Sevens Law 19.23 also makes it a penalty for a front-row player intentionally to kick the ball out of the tunnel or out of the scrum towards the opponents' try line.

The backs wait five metres; scrum-halves have separate lines

Apart from the two scrum-halves, each player outside the scrum must remain at least five metres behind the hindmost foot of that player's team until the scrum ends. If the hindmost foot is within five metres of, or in, that team's in-goal, the offside line is the try line. Crossing early is a penalty.

The scrum-half of the team in possession must keep at least one foot level with or behind the ball once play begins. Before the throw, the opposing scrum-half may stand beside the thrower on their own side of the middle line or retire five metres behind the hindmost foot and remain there. Once the scrum begins, current Law 19.30 permits the non-possessing scrum-half to stay near the scrum only with both feet no further than the tunnel's centre line, or to retire permanently to the hindmost-foot or five-metre offside line. This restriction remains labelled a Global Law Trial.

Visible ball is not automatically out

Applying the Sevens replacement to Law 19.36, the scrum ends when the ball comes out in any direction except the tunnel; when the scrum-half of the team that won possession plays it; when the referee whistles for an infringement; or when the ball in the scrum reaches or crosses the try line. The ordinary number-eight ending is deleted.

If the ball is available at the back while the scrum is stationary for three to five seconds, the referee calls “use it”. The team must play it out immediately. Failure brings a new scrum to the team not in possession—it does not produce an automatic penalty.

Reset only when there is no identified offence

Under Laws 19.34–35, the original throwing team keeps the throw when a no-infringement reset is required: for example, the ball exits either end of the tunnel, the scrum collapses or breaks up before ending, it wheels beyond 90 degrees, neither side wins possession, or the ball is unintentionally kicked out of the tunnel. If the ball is repeatedly kicked out, the referee must treat that action as intentional and award a penalty.

The whistle is immediate if a scrum collapses, a player is lifted or forced upwards, or continued play would be dangerous. Advantage is never played when the ball exits either end of the tunnel, the scrum wheels beyond 90 degrees, a scrum player is lifted clear of the ground, or safety requires a stop. A deliberate collapse, pull, charge or lift is instead a penalty under Laws 9.19 and 19.37 and may also lead to a card depending on danger or repetition.

Free-kick, penalty, reset or turnover scrum?

• Free-kick: technical timing or process errors such as not being ready in 15 seconds, an illegal crouch or foot position, pushing before the ball is thrown, a faulty throw-in, or the throwing hooker failing to strike.
• Penalty: unfair, offside or dangerous conduct such as a player unbinding, illegal prop binding, pushing other than straight, playing the ball by hand, intentional collapse, or the specific sevens forward kick-out offence.
• Reset: one of the Law 19.34 failures occurs and the referee identifies no infringement. The same team throws again.
• Scrum to the opposition: the team ignores “use it” after the ball has become available at the back.

Law 7 allows advantage only when the non-offending team gains a clear, real tactical or territorial benefit. The listed immediate-whistle cases above override advantage.

A defender knocks forward

Situation: Green knocks the ball forward in the field of play and no advantage develops.

World Rugby 2026 ruling: Blue receives the scrum and throw at the nearest permitted point in the scrum zone. The decisive fact is the knock forward, so Law 19.1 gives the throw to the non-offending team.

The opposing scrum-half follows the ball

Situation: after Blue throws in and wins possession, Red's scrum-half moves around the side beyond the centre line of the tunnel without first retiring to an offside line.

World Rugby 2026 ruling: penalty to Blue under the Law 19.30 Global Law Trial. Staying near the scrum is legal; advancing beyond the tunnel centre line is the decisive offence.

The ball is visible at the hooker's feet

Situation: the ball can be seen between the last feet but remains under the three-player formation. A back runs past the five-metre line.

World Rugby 2026 ruling: penalty for offside. Visibility is not a Law 19.36 ending; the ball had not left, been played by the scrum-half, reached the try line or become dead on the whistle.

The ball shoots back through the tunnel

Situation: a lawful strike unintentionally sends the ball out through the end of the tunnel from which it was thrown, with no offence identified.

World Rugby 2026 ruling: immediate whistle and reset; Blue, the original throwing team, throws again. Exiting through the tunnel is a reset event, not the ordinary “ball out” ending.

Do not import age-grade limits automatically

Standard World Rugby sevens Law 19 does not state a 1.5-metre maximum push. That limit appears in the Under-19 scrum variations, and Law 19.39 allows a union to implement those variations at defined levels within its jurisdiction. A school, youth, community or modified event may also publish uncontested-scrum or safety conditions.

Check the appointed union and tournament regulations before applying an age-grade limit, Game On modification or local uncontested-scrum rule. This page does not treat any of those optional rules as universal sevens law.

Five shortcuts that give the wrong ruling

• “Sevens scrums are uncontested”: the World Rugby baseline remains a contest; a local modification must say otherwise.
• “The throw must land on a perfect centre line”: it must be straight, but Law 19.15 allows the thrower's shoulder to align on the middle line.
• “The defending scrum-half can follow the ball”: the current 19.30 trial stops that player at the tunnel centre line unless they permanently retire.
• “Every collapse is a reset”: only a collapse without an identified infringement is reset; deliberate or dangerous action is penalised.
• “All sevens scrums have a 1.5-metre cap”: that is an Under-19 variation, not the standard sevens baseline.

How to read a sevens scrum call

1. Name the competition, union and implementation date; check for an age-grade or modified rule.
2. Identify the stoppage, mark and team entitled to throw under Law 19.1.
3. Check that three players per team are ready within 15 seconds and stay legally bound.
4. Watch “crouch, bind, set”, then separate engagement from the later start when the ball leaves the scrum-half's hands.
5. Test the throw, strike, push and each scrum-half's position.
6. Decide whether Law 19.36 ended the scrum; if not, the five-metre offside lines remain.
7. If play fails, distinguish a no-fault reset from a free-kick, penalty, opposition scrum or immediate safety whistle.

World Rugby 2026 source material

• World Rugby Laws of the Game 2026 PDF — Laws 7, 9 and 19 on pages 47–48, 54–58 and 99–110; Sevens Law 19 variations on pages 129–130.
• World Rugby Law 19: Scrum — awards, formation, engagement, throw, offside, resets, endings and sanctions.
• World Rugby Sevens variation, Law 19: Scrum — 15-second set-up, three-player scrum, forward kick-out offence and sevens ending.
• World Rugby Global Law Trials — 1 January 2025 — Law 19.30 defending scrum-half position and implementation scope.
• World Rugby July 2026 law updates — 1 July implementation note, current full-law changes and continuing trials.
• World Rugby Under-19 variation, Law 19: Scrum — the separate 1.5-metre limit discussed under competition boundaries.
• World Rugby law changes — 1 July 2024 — removal of the scrum option from a free-kick.
• World Rugby Game On variation, Law 19: Scrum — optional reduced, capped-push or uncontested community scrums.

Source note: checked against World Rugby's 2026 English law book and live law pages on 28 August 2026. For an event that began before 1 July 2026, or any youth, community or modified competition, its union and tournament regulations may supplement or defer the baseline described here.