To increase player safety, World Rugby has outlawed the practice of front-rows placing their heads onto opposition players’ shoulders between the call of ‘bind’ and ‘set’ on engagement. In practice, there must be a gap between the front rows after the ‘bind’ call.

Law 19.10(b) now reads:

The front-rows crouch with their heads to the left of their immediate opponents’, so that no player’s head is touching the neck or shoulders of an opponent.

Read the World Rugby announcement for more details.