Glossary of rugby union terms
Rugby union is a team sport played between two teams of fifteen players.
This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of rugby union. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics.
0-9
; 22; 50:22
; 89
; 99
A
; Accidental offside; Advantage
; Advantage line
; Alickadoo
; Ankle tap
B
; Ball back; Bill
; Black dot
; Blindside
; Blitz defence
; Blood bin
; Bonus points
- Australia's National Rugby Championship uses the same system as France, except that a losing bonus point is awarded if the margin of defeat is 8 points or fewer.
; Breakdown
C
; Caution; Cavalry charge
; Centre
; Charge-down
; Choke tackle
; Cibi
;Colts
; Conversion
; Counter rucking
; Crash ball
; Crash tackle
; Cross-Field Kick
D
; Drift defence; Drop goal
; Drop kick
; Dummy pass
; Dummy runner
; Dump tackle
E
; Eightman, Eighth-manF
; Five metre scrum, Scrum-five; Fend or "hand off"
; First XV or First fifteen
; Flanker
; Fly half or five-eighth
; Forward pass
; Foul play
; Fourth official
; Free-kick
; Full-back
; Full house
G
; Gain line; Garryowen
; Goal
; Goal from mark
; Goal line, Tryline
The goal line is often referred to as the "try line" though that term does not appear in the Laws of the Game.
; Goose Step
; Group of death
; Grubber kick
H
; Half-back; Haka
; Hand-off
; High tackle
; Hooker
; Hospital pass
I
; InterceptionK
; Kick-off; Kick tennis
; Knock-on
L
; Latcher/Latching on; Late tackle
; Line break
; Line-out
; Line-out code
; Line speed
; Lock
; Loose head
M
; Mark; Maul
; Medical joker
; Mismatch
; Mulligrubber
N
; North; Not straight
; Number 8
O
; Obstruction; Off-load pass
; Offside
; Onside
; On the full
; Openside
; Overlap
P
; Pack; Passing
; Penalty
; Penalty kick
; Penalty try
; Phase
; Pitch
; Place kick
; Pop pass
; Professional foul
; Prop
R
; Red card; Red zone
; Restart
; Round the corner kicking
; Ruck
S
; Scrum; Scrum half
; Selector
; Set piece
; Shoeing
; Short arm penalty
; Sin bin
; Sipi Tau
; Siva Tau
; Spear tackle
; Stellenbosch Laws
T
; Tackle; Tap kick
; Tap-tackle
; Ten Metre Law
; Test match
; Tight Head
; TMO
; Touch
; Touch judge
; Truck and trailer
; Try
; Tunnel
; Turnover
; Twenty two metre drop-out
U
; Uncontested scrum; Up and under
; Use it or lose it
V
; Video refereeW
; Wheeling; World Cup Joker
; Wing