Obstruction depends on what the player does—not contact alone.

The ruleset and effective version used here

This page applies World Rugby's live English Laws of the Game, incorporating the law update effective for new competitions and events starting after 1 July 2026. The main provisions are Law 9.1–9.6, “Obstruction,” read with Law 10 for offside interference and accidental offside.

World Rugby says a league or competition already under way on 1 July should use the implementation date set by its union. The obstruction wording in the original 2026 law-book PDF and the July live laws is the same; the separate TMO protocol did change from 1 July. This is the standard World Rugby baseline, not a claim that every domestic competition has video review or identical implementation arrangements.

“Obstruction” is not one single test

World Rugby Law 9.1–9.6 covers six related situations, all sanctioned by a penalty:

1. Race for the ball (9.1): opponents running for the ball may make shoulder-to-shoulder contact, but neither may push or charge the other.
2. Offside player (9.2): an offside player must not intentionally obstruct an opponent or interfere with play.
3. Tackler blocked (9.3): no player may intentionally prevent an opponent from tackling or attempting to tackle the ball-carrier.
4. Opportunity to play the ball (9.4): no player may intentionally remove that opportunity, except by competing for possession.
5. Ball-carrier uses a team-mate (9.5): the carrier must not intentionally run into an offside team-mate to obstruct the opposition.
6. Ball dead (9.6): a player must not obstruct or otherwise interfere with an opponent while the ball is dead.

Why every decoy collision is not a penalty

Laws 9.2–9.5 expressly use intentionally. Useful evidence includes the runner's original line, any late step or change of angle, who initiated contact, whether the runner was a plausible pass option, what the defender was trying to do, and whether the action actually prevented the tackle or play on the ball. Those observations help establish the written tests; they are not extra clauses in the law.

The law does not say that contact automatically proves obstruction, or that contact is needed. A runner can obstruct without touching anyone by deliberately occupying the only available tackling route. Conversely, a defender who chooses a poor line and collides with a support runner who has continued a genuine line has not automatically been obstructed.

What a support runner may do

• Run a genuine support or decoy line and remain available for a pass.
• Continue that line when a defender elects to drift, hold position or run around it.
• Compete for a loose or kicked ball, subject to the shoulder-to-shoulder limit in Law 9.1.
• Stand or move in open play when onside and not intentionally preventing an opponent's legal play.
• Bind and drive as a lawful participant in a scrum, ruck or maul, subject to the laws for that phase.

There is no special exemption called a “decoy run.” It is legal because it does not breach the obstruction tests, not because coaches have given it that label.

Running behind a team-mate can have different outcomes

“Crossing” usually describes the ball-carrier moving across or behind a team-mate. Law 9.5's exact trigger is a carrier intentionally running into an offside team-mate to obstruct the opposition; that produces a penalty. The team-mate can separately offend under Law 9.3 by deliberately changing line or holding a blocking position to stop a tackler. Merely passing behind a team-mate is not automatically either offence.

There is also a narrower accidental-offside rule. Under Law 10.5, if a player cannot avoid being touched by the ball or by a team-mate carrying it, play stops only when that player's team gains an advantage, and the sanction is a scrum, not a penalty. Avoidable or deliberately manufactured shielding is not accidental offside.

Position and obstruction are related but distinct

Law 10.1 makes a player offside in open play when that player is in front of a team-mate carrying the ball or who last played it. The player must not play the ball, tackle the carrier, prevent the opposition playing as it wishes or loiter in that position.

Law 9.2 deals specifically with an offside player who intentionally obstructs or interferes. Law 10.4 separately permits a penalty when an offside player moves towards the ball or fails to retreat and interferes; the non-offending team may instead choose a scrum where the offending team last played the ball. Being ahead of the ball is a position. Interfering from there is what makes it punishable.

Neither attack nor defence may clear a route illegally

Obstruction is not only an attacking offence. A defender can illegally block a support runner from reaching a kick or loose ball. Law 9.4 protects an opponent's opportunity to play the ball while preserving a genuine contest for possession.

Law 9.15 adds a broader open-play restriction: outside a scrum, ruck or maul, a player without the ball must not hold, push, charge or obstruct an opponent who also does not have the ball. That can control an off-ball collision even when no ball-carrier is being shielded. Dangerous contact may also require assessment under the dangerous-play provisions rather than being treated as obstruction alone.

Shoulder-to-shoulder is a limited exception

Law 9.1 permits shoulder-to-shoulder contact only when a player and an opponent are both running for the ball. It does not legalise a push, a charge, an early take-out or a block by a player who is not genuinely contesting the ball.

If a player intentionally charges, obstructs or late-tackles an opponent who has just kicked, the more specific Law 9.25 applies. It gives the non-offending team a choice of penalty locations, including the place of infringement or, subject to Law 9.25's positioning rules, where the ball lands or is next played.

A legal maul cannot be built around a screen

Contact and binding are expected inside a maul, but formation and access still matter. World Rugby's maul guideline applicable to new competitions from 1 June 2026 ties obstruction directly to three points:

• At a lineout, lifters must not step in front of the grounded jumper and remove the opposition's access to tackle or drive on the ball-carrier; that is Law 9.3 obstruction.
• Under Law 16.2, a player ripping the ball must stay in contact with the original carrier until transfer. A long-arm or sideways transfer to a player farther back, leaving team-mates in front as a screen, is penalised.
• Players joining must come from onside and bind to the hindmost player under Law 16.7; they cannot form a chain and swing around the side.

A lawful transfer to the hindmost player and a properly bound drive are not obstruction merely because team-mates are in front of the ball. The maul laws create a legal contest; they do not authorise players outside that contest to block.

How to judge an obstruction replay

1. Name the situation. Is it a tackle line, opportunity to play the ball, race for a kick, offside player, crossing collision, dead-ball act or maul formation?
2. Locate the ball and players. Identify the carrier, the prospective tackler or ball-player, and whether the possible blocker was offside.
3. Track the original lines. Look for a late step, brace, stop, angle change, arm movement or carrier's move behind a team-mate.
4. Ask what was prevented. Was the opponent stopped from attempting a tackle or playing the ball, rather than merely forced to make a normal defensive choice?
5. Apply the correct mental element. Laws 9.2–9.5 require intentional prevention or obstruction; Law 9.1 and 9.6 are worded differently.
6. Check the exception or adjacent law. Shoulder-to-shoulder contest, accidental offside, ordinary offside, Law 9.15 or the maul laws may control the facts.
7. Choose the outcome. Play on, scrum for accidental offside, advantage, penalty, or—only on the demanding Law 8.3 test—a penalty try and card.

A decoy keeps a genuine line

Situation: Green 12 runs straight as a credible pass option. The ball is passed behind Green 12 to Green 13. Blue 10 drifts out, then turns inward and brushes Green 12 while trying to recover.

World Rugby July 2026 ruling: play on if Green 12 did not intentionally prevent the tackle. The overlap, proximity and contact do not by themselves establish Law 9.3 obstruction; the decisive fact is that the runner maintained a genuine line rather than altering it to block Blue 10.

A late step opens the scoring gap

Situation: Green 12 runs as a decoy, then steps outward into Blue 10 just after the pass, preventing Blue 10 from attempting a tackle on Green 13, who scores.

World Rugby July 2026 ruling: penalty to Blue under Law 9.3 and no try. The late change and its purpose distinguish an intentional block from a genuine decoy line. In a match using the July 2026 TMO protocol, a clear and obvious obstruction within the review window may be formally reviewed before the restart.

The carrier runs into a team-mate

Situation: Green 9 turns back inside and deliberately runs into the line of Green 5, who is in front of the ball, placing Green 5 between the carrier and Blue 7.

World Rugby July 2026 ruling: penalty to Blue under Law 9.5. The decisive fact is the carrier's intentional move into the offside team-mate to obstruct the defender. If an unavoidable collision had occurred instead and Green gained an advantage, Law 10.5 would produce a scrum rather than a penalty.

Two opponents chase a loose kick

Situation: Green 14 and Blue 15 are side by side and both running to ground a rolling ball. Green 14 leans shoulder-to-shoulder without extending an arm or changing into a charge.

World Rugby July 2026 ruling: the contact is permitted by Law 9.1 while both genuinely run for the ball. A push, charge or early move whose object is to remove Blue 15 rather than contest the ball changes the ruling to a penalty.

A defender blocks the kick chaser

Situation: Green 10 chips ahead. Blue 12, who is not trying to gather the ball, steps across Green 10's onside support runner and holds that runner away from the landing area.

World Rugby July 2026 ruling: penalty to Green. Depending on the precise action, Law 9.4 protects the runner's opportunity to play the ball and Law 9.15 prohibits holding or obstructing an opponent without the ball. Defenders do not receive a special licence to screen kick chasers.

Penalty, advantage, cards and penalty tries

The listed sanction for obstruction in Law 9.1–9.6 is a penalty. Under Law 20.1, an in-play penalty is normally marked at the place of infringement; for an offence while the ball is dead, it is marked where play would have restarted, adjusted to the locations specified in that law.

Law 7 permits advantage only when the benefit is clear and real. The referee returns to the penalty if the non-offending team is unlikely to gain it. Repeated infringements can bring a team warning and a yellow card under Law 9.8–9.10; dangerous or other misconduct is assessed under its own provision.

A penalty try is not the routine result of a block near the try line. Under Law 8.3, defending foul play must have prevented a probable try, or a try in a more advantageous position. The offender must then be shown a yellow or red card. An attacking obstruction before a grounding instead means no try and a penalty to the defence.

Video review has a defined window

Law 6.15 allows a match organiser to appoint a TMO; many matches do not have one. Under the World Rugby TMO Protocol implemented on 1 July 2026, a formal try-scoring review may assess obstruction under Law 9.1–9.6 when the officials require it to resolve a clear and obvious infringement.

The review reaches no farther back than the last two phases before the try and never beyond the last restart, subject to the protocol's quick-tap and quick-throw wording. For this purpose, two phases means two rucks or mauls; an incident beyond a third ruck or maul cannot be checked. Obstruction is not included in the protocol's ordinary list of TMO live calls, so the TMO does not have an unrestricted power to scan and interrupt open play for every possible screen.

Claims the law does not support

• “Any contact by a decoy is obstruction.” Intent, action and what was prevented must be judged.
• “No contact means no penalty.” A deliberate body position can prevent a tackle or play on the ball without collision.
• “A runner may always hold the line.” A supposed line is no defence if the player intentionally uses it to block.
• “Shoulder-to-shoulder is always legal.” Law 9.1 limits it to opponents running for the ball.
• “Crossing always means a penalty.” Deliberate shielding is a penalty; unavoidable accidental offside that benefits the team is a scrum.
• “The TMO can review any earlier block.” The July 2026 protocol imposes a clear-and-obvious standard and a defined try-scoring window.

What may vary

The World Rugby obstruction provisions are the baseline for standard rugby union. The practical differences most relevant here are whether a competition has a TMO, which TMO protocol and implementation date it uses, and whether an authorised variation or union directive supplements the standard laws.

World Rugby's July update applies to new competitions and events starting after 1 July 2026; a competition already in progress should be checked against its union's adoption notice. This page does not import a domestic league interpretation or treat sevens, age-grade and community modifications as universal.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• World Rugby — live Laws of the Game, Law 9 “Foul play,” especially 9.1–9.6, 9.8–9.10, 9.15 and 9.25 (July 2026 law assets)
• World Rugby — live Laws of the Game, Law 10 “Offside and onside in open play,” especially 10.1, 10.4 and 10.5
• World Rugby — live Laws of the Game, Law 7 “Advantage”
• World Rugby — live Laws of the Game, Law 8.3 “Penalty try”
• World Rugby — live Laws of the Game, Law 16 “Maul,” especially 16.2 and 16.4–16.10
• World Rugby — Law Application Guideline “Maul,” applicable for new competitions from 1 June 2026
• World Rugby — live Laws of the Game, Law 20.1 “Location of a penalty or free-kick”
• World Rugby — live Laws of the Game, Law 6.15–6.16 “Television match official”
• World Rugby — TMO Protocol, implementation 1 July 2026: serious foul play, try-scoring review and live-call scope
• World Rugby — July 2026 law update and competition implementation notice
• World Rugby — Laws of the Game Rugby Union 2026 PDF, Laws 6–10, 16 and 20

Checked on 28 August 2026 against World Rugby's live English law pages, the 2026 law-book PDF, the July 2026 implementation notice, the TMO Protocol effective 1 July 2026 and the maul guideline applicable from 1 June 2026. The original PDF predates the July TMO protocol, but its Law 9.1–9.6 obstruction wording matches the live July law assets. Unions and competition organisers may set adoption dates and authorised variations, so their appointed regulations remain controlling where they supplement the World Rugby baseline.