In rugby union, you can only tackle a player in possession of the ball.

That means you cannot challenge your opponent at any other time.

So if they do not have the ball, you cannot tackle them. Simple.

Sometimes, a player will deliberately get in the way of an opponent without the ball because they think the attacker has a good chance of scoring a try.

But if the referee sees this, the defender will be in trouble.

A penalty will be awarded to the opposition and the defender could find themselves sitting in the sin-bin for 10 minutes after being shown a yellow card.

Ruck

Maul

Knock on

Forward pass

22m drop out

5m scrum

Mark

Tackle

Obstruction

Sin-bin