How Does a Line Out Work in Rugby?

A line out in rugby restarts play after the ball goes into touch. The hooker throws down a tunnel between two lines of forwards, a jumper is lifted by two team-mates to catch it, and the throw must travel straight down the middle. The team that took the ball into touch does not throw it in.

What is a lineout in rugby?

A lineout is one of rugby union’s two set pieces — the restart the game uses when the ball leaves the field at the side. Each team forms a single line, half a metre from the mark where the ball went out, and the throw comes down the corridor between them. What makes the lineout unlike anything else in sport is that the receiving pod is built in the air: jumpers are lifted, legally and deliberately, by their own team-mates. Rugby lineout explained in one sentence: it is a throwing contest the thrower’s team should win, because only they know where the ball is going.

What is the Five-Step Lineout?

The Five-Step Lineout is the sequence every lineout actually runs in, from the touch judge’s flag to the ball being back in play.

1. Call— the code that tells your own pack where the ball is going and tells the opposition nothing.
2. Set— the shape: how many players, spaced how, in which pods.
3. Lift— two lifters take the jumper up on the throw, so the jumper meets the ball at the top of the rise.
4. Throw— the hooker’s delivery, straight and to the timing of the jump, not the other way round.
5. Transfer— what happens the instant the ball is caught: down to the scrum-half, or into the maul.

Those five steps are also how ERA’s lineoutsis organised — calling, jumping, lifting, throwing and the maul each have their own module, and the builder assembles a shape against the specific opposition menu you are facing that weekend.

How many players are in a rugby lineout?

A minimum of two from each team, and the team throwing in sets the maximum — so “how many” is a tactical choice, not a fixed number. Most full lineouts use six or seven plus the thrower; a rugby 2 man lineout is rare but legal. The shapes below are the working answer: every 6-man, 5-man and 4-man variation in ERA’s lineout database, with the number of plug-and-play options each shape carries. The database behind them holds 350+ opponent lineout options, which is where these counts come from.

Who stands in the line matters as much as the shape: the jumpers are usually the locks and the back row, the lifters the props — rugby positions covers which shirts do which set-piece jobs and why.

What are the rules of a rugby lineout?

The rugby lineout rules below are World Rugby’s Law 18, read row by row — each row names the law it comes from, and the third column is what it means when you are standing in the line.

When can you take a quick lineout in rugby?

The quick throw — a quick lineout rugby players use to catch a defence walking — is allowed any time before the lineout forms, as long as the ball that went out is the ball thrown in, nobody else has touched it, the thrower’s feet are outside the field, and the throw goes five metres, parallel to or towards the thrower’s own try line. One touch from a team-mate, or a formed lineout, and the chance is gone.

What happens if the lineout throw is not straight?

Under the current global law trial, a not-straight throw is only pulled up when the defending team lifts a jumper to compete for the ball: then the opposition gets the choice of a lineout or a scrum. If the defence does not compete in the air, play simply continues. The old automatic sanction is gone, but a crooked throw against a competing defence still hands the ball straight over.

Where is the offside line at a lineout?

The rugby lineout offside rule runs two lines at once. For the players in the lineout, the offside line is the mark of touch until the ball is thrown and touched, then it becomes the ball itself. For everyone else — the backs — it is 10 metres behind the mark. That 10-metre gap between the lineout in rugby union and each back line is exactly the space an off-the-top ball is designed to attack.

How do you lift in a rugby lineout?

Rugby lineout lifting is a legs skill, not an arms skill. The two lifters pre-grip the jumper — the law allows the grip as long as it is not below the shorts from behind or below the thighs from the front — then drive upward the moment the ball leaves the hooker’s hands, never before. The front lifter sets the height, the back lifter provides the drive, and both own the landing: the jumper must come down safely every single time. Rugby lineout lifting technique is trained dry first — lift, hold, land — before a ball is ever thrown, and rugby lineout jumping technique is the mirror of it: a still, tall body that snaps up on the throw and trusts the lifters.

How do you throw a rugby lineout?

The thrower stands on the mark with both feet behind the touchline and cannot step in until the ball is gone, cannot dummy the throw, and must deliver without delay once the line is formed. Everything else is repeatability: the same grip, the same elbow height, the same follow-through at every distance, so the flight the jumpers time against never changes. Rugby lineout throwing drills are mostly boring on purpose — a still target at five metres, then seven, then the back of a live pod — because a throw you can repeat under fatigue is worth more than a longer one you cannot.

What are rugby lineout calls and codes?

Rugby lineout calls are a team’s private language: a word, a number string or a gesture that tells your own pod which shape to set and where the throw is going, while telling the opposition nothing. Rugby lineout codes are usually built from a small system — a keyword that picks the jumper, a modifier for front, middle or tail ball, and a live dummy that means nothing at all. This page explains how codes are built; it does not publish any team’s calls, because the whole value of a call is that it stays private. The best lineout moves rugby sides run — front ball off the top, tail drive, the hook to the receiver — all start with a call the defence could not read.

What lineout drills actually transfer?

The lineout drills rugby coaching sessions actually keep are the ones that isolate one of the five steps. Dry lifts against a count for the pods; wall throws against a target for the hooker; full-shape reps against a passive line to bed a new call in; then live steal practice where the defensive pod reads and competes. Rugby lineout maul drills finish the sequence — catch, bind, drive — because the catch and drive is where a won lineout turns into metres. Session structure for all of this lives in how to coach rugby union.

What does a linesman do in rugby?

The linesman in rugby — officially the touch judge or assistant referee — marks where the ball went into touch, signals which team throws in, and raises the flag for the mark the lineout forms on. At most levels of the game the assistant referee also helps the referee with offside at the lineout and foul play the referee cannot see. When you see the flag go up and stay up, the linesman is holding the mark of touch — the exact spot Law 18 builds the whole set piece around.

Where to find out more

Every law claim on this page is taken from World Rugby’s Law 18 — touch, quick throw and lineout, read in full on the World Rugby Passport. The law numbers in the table are there so you can check any row against the source in seconds.

Frequently asked questions