Penalties in rugby?

Question

Are there penalties/fouls in rugby? If so, what are they?

Answer 1

Among the things you can't do in rugby are throwing the ball forward, being in a more forward position than the ball or than the player with the ball (offside), not releasing the ball when tackled, not getting back on your feet fast enough after being tackled (because rugby is a game played by players on their feet), not moving away from the scene after being tackled, throwing the ball out of bounds, tripping a player with the feet (although you can use your hands and catch a player's feet), and, obviously, violent play, procedural violations at the restart of play after a foul or ball out of bounds, etc.

The usual punishment is either a scrum or a penalty kick, both taken from the place where the fouls happens. Also common is a free kick. A penalty is a kick at goal; if successful, it's three points. A much rarer occurrence is the awarding of a penalty try. If a fouls takes place and prevents a try from being scored that in the referee's opinion probably would have been scored (e.g. tripping a player as he's about to make an unstoppable break for the line), he awards a penalty try (worth 5 points) to the team infringed against. The conversion for two points takes place right in front of the posts.

A player whose foul is warranted bad enough may receive a yellow card and be sin-binned for ten minutes. Serious offences can result in the showing of a red card, and dismissal from the match.