He's off his feet!

By ATTR
April 25 2010

ATTR's series of articles continues; Scottish ref's take note!

Off his feet!

Often you will hear the comment that a player is off his feet. It is one of the areas of the game that appear to be most inconsistently refereed according to many spectators.

 Why is this? Well to answer the question you need to establish what “being on or off your feet” means in the context of the Laws of rugby union.

 When you next seen Martyn Williams bent over a player, who is lying on the ground, ready to snatch the ball away the question you have to ask is: “ is Martyn’s weight supported by his feet or is his weight being supported through his arms and onto the player on the floor?” If the weight is through his legs then Martyn is “On his feet”. If, however, he is supporting his weight through his arms and the player on the floor then Martyn would be “off his feet”.

 Try this little experiment. Get a friend to lie on their side on the floor. Bend over them and rest your hands on their side. Now get them to roll from under your hands. If you stay in position great you were “on your feet”. Repeat the experiment bending further and further over your friend, until you get to the point at which when they roll away you fall over. At that point your weight was only being supported by your friend and not through your own feet. Repeat the experiment with your friend doing the bending and you rolling away. Now he may be able to get lower than you before he can no longer support himself.

Does that make sense? Well the referee has to judge that in a split second. Not easy; is it!?