News

The worker bee was adopted as a motif for Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, and those running Touch in the area have certainly took on this mantle from the off in 2017. From the Manchester Chargers Touch Boot Camp, Manchester hosted Touch Championships, and Level 1 and 2 Referee courses to local derbies, the England Touch AGM, Junior Touch Discovery day, and even a T ...

There are a number of Level 1 and Level 2 referee courses coming up at a number of locations.The England Touch Association is needing more and more qualified referees with each passing season to ensure the highest standard of officiating at all of the various national tournaments that are held throughout the year.Level 1£20 per participantDATEVENUEPRESENTERTO REGISTER25th March ...

The England Junior training squads have been announced for the Boy’s 18s, Girl’s 18s and X15s categories.Over the past couple of weeks over 130 youngsters took part in Junior Discovery Days in Manchester and Canterbury, with 90 being selected. This group will have four training sessions in April and May before the squads are named for the final training ahead of the 2017 Junior ...

By Martin WrightDay two of the NTLs is done and the competition is starting to take shape. Five games completed and the better teams have pulled away whilst the battle for the middle placings is hotting up. So far things seem to be going with the form book but day three could see a few upsets which might effect the make up of the semi-finalists.I used to think that Australia wa ...

Martin Wright's observations on Australian lifeWell the last blog didn’t seem to go down too badly so I thought I’d write again and see how this one goes. I haven’t really got much to say about Touch this time so those of you (probably not many of you) hoping to read about lessons I’ve learnt related to the game will be disappointed today. That’s not to say I haven’t done much ...

In 2016 England had a Mixed 15s team for the first time Over 120 youngsters attended two Junior Discovery Days over the past two weeks, one in Manchester, the other in Canterbury. This is up from 88 players in 2016 England will be sending teams to the 2017 Junior Touch Championships in Dublin in August The England Touch Association is developing a schools programme based o ...

NTL Blog - A Southern Crusade. By Thomas DevereuxFollowing on from the 2016 Euros, England Touch Nationals and the need to continually up-skill England's coaches I was given an opportunity to visit Australia and work with the Queensland Cowboys Men's Open Elite Eight Team at the 2017 NTLs. They are the defending champions from the 2016 Carnival. I had watched a bit (My girlfrie ...

   England Touch Association agrees new extensive partnership with kit manufacturer Belief New partnership applies to England national teams and regional teams competing in 2017 Nationals onwards The new deal is crucial in helping the England Touch Association achieving its organisational goals and ambitionsThe England Touch Association has today announced a new th ...

The 2017 Touch season got off to an excellent start with the 8th and Annual Manchester Touch Championships held at The Armitage Centre on Saturday.Following last year's mud bath, and some people still trying to get clean, we ran the event on state of the art 3G pitches to ensure the weather couldn't ruin the day and the Touch could flow, and flow it did!This year's tournament w ...

One man's blog - By Martin Wright[caption id="attachment_31099" align="alignright" width="227"] Coach Wright - In Action[/caption]So back in October I got a phone call from Tim Osborne asking if I would like to shadow one of the Elite 8 coaches at the Australian NTLs.  There was only ever going to be one answer to that, so 'leave pass' obtained, teary farewells done and 27 hour ...