How does the offside rule work in rugby union?

Question

Is it different from soccer/football? I've never understood it.

Answer 1

A Rugby ball cannot be thrown forward.  When passing to a teammate, that teammate must be behind you.

Forward pass = offsides.

This is very different than football whne offsides has to do with when people start moving at the beginning of a down, not the ball.

I dont know about soccer.

Answer 2

if ur offside u get a penalty........sometime the rules arent as hard as they look

Answer 3

Keon is mostly correct.

When the ball is kicked, any players in front of the kicker cannot advance towards the football.

Answer 4

At a breakdown - a ruck, maul or scrum, the defending team has to remain behind the feet of the last player involved in the breakdown until the ball comes out, otherwise the attacking team gets a penalty.

When a team kicks, unless someone from the other team touches the ball off the boot, any player in front of the kicker is offside and has to stop 10m from where the ball ends up and wait for either a player from the other team to pick it up and run the 10m or for the kicker to run past them before they can play the ball or tackle. The kicker and any player behind him are onside and can chase the kick and pick up the ball and run with it or tackle whoever picks it up from the other team regardless. Again, infringement results in a penalty.

In a lineout, all players who are not in the lineout or the scrum half have to stand at leat 10m behind the lineout. And when a penalty is given, players from the defending team have to be at least 10m back from the mark or they must get back 10m before they can interact with the attcking players.