News

Last week the first ever Berkshire All Schools Touch Tournament took place in Reading.Six girls teams and five boys teams took part, with the majority of the Year 8 and Year 9 students trying out Touch for the first time. The winners of both the boy’s and girl’s divisions came from Pangbourne College, with the girl’s division final going to a tense 3 v 3 drop off which lasted o ...

By Gary LambertLast Weekend saw the England Royals Women’s Open squad convene for their final preparations before heading to Edinburgh for the inaugural Premiership Permit Tournament next week. All three England Women’s Permit Squads met in Nottingham alongside the Men’s Knights and Royals to put finishing touches to this season’s campaigns. Well supported by a strong contingen ...

The England Scholars Women’s and Men’s teams have been announced for the upcoming Championship Permit competition in France.The groups, who had their first training session last Saturday, June 17th, will be travelling to Fontenay-le-Comte to take on teams from across Europe. England is sending the only all-students teams in the competition, which will be an excellent opportunit ...

Last weekend in Edinburgh Nathan Joyce became the first player to represent England in every available category – Men’s Open, Mixed Open, Men’s 30s, Mixed Senior, Men’s 35s and Men’s 40s.We caught up with him for some reflections on his career.How did you first get into Touch?I first got involved in Touch in 1994 when a New Zealander called Paul Napier came to our rugby club in ...

Staff from the England Touch Association were at Twickenham last weekend as part of the O2 Touch Takeover of the national stadium.Tim Osborne, Dom Tripp, Will Serocold and Gareth Hinds provided expertise and support to help grow this code of rugby, refereeing games, giving guidance about refereeing to club representatives, and getting into the relaxed, social spirit of the day ...

It is Women’s Sport Week, and the England Touch Association is leading the way to get women and girls picking up the oval ball.All four of the ETA’s national competitions – the Belief National Touch Series, SPORTTAPE Challenge Touch Series, Steeden Development Touch Series, and the Men’s and Women’s Touch Cup – are geared at having women at the heart of the game, with the mixed ...

On the surface, the 2017 Senior Touch Championships don't really count. It's not a FIT competition and the caps don't count in the official tally. It's really just a friendly tournament designed to allow those oldies not playing in the European Premiership Permit competition a chance to play some decent Touch this year and give them a reason to keep some of the timber off befor ...

England’s teams had a varied weekend in Edinburgh at the inaugural Senior Touch Championships.Senior MixedThis was a closely-fought tournament throughout, with none of the three competing teams from Wales, England and Ireland establishing dominance.England won two of their six matches, losing three and drawing one. However neither Wales nor Ireland would win more than three mat ...

The England Touch Association has appointed Katy Young as its new governance director.Katy has worked in sport development, specifically within the Higher Education Sector, for over 10 years, and has responsibility (and passion!) for developing volunteers, coaches and officials.With a background in volunteer management and as a sport volunteer herself, she is committed to ensur ...

Bareback Riders secured their second Belief NTS title of the season at Broadstreet RFC this weekend.In a tight Cup final BBR saw off London Scorpions in a battle between the two teams who have dominated the Belief NTS so far in 2017.Top-class skill and end-to-end action entertained the other teams who had stayed on after their own competitions had finished at the Ivor Preece Ce ...