England's Elite XV gave Touch a go!

Nottingham’s Chris Simon and Cambridge’s Ben Creese were lucky enough to experience the mighty Twickenham in August, when they rallied to the call for some last minute refereeing and coaching help at the Maximuscle Touch Comp at the RFU’s headquarters.

The lads took charge of  a 8-team comp on the hallowed turf and ended up refereeing seven games each and ‘dualling’ the final.

As the day progressed, the amateur clubs who won the chance to compete at Twickenham, were joined by some of the senior England squad who were to act as ‘Player-Coaches’ for the day. Some fared better than others as Creese and Simon applied a fairly strict policy on playing to the official touch rules.

As expected , stepping over the mark, the offside rule and touch and pass, proved somewhat challenging for several of England’s main men. At one point, Christian Wade was seen to chip ahead on the 5^th touch!

That said, they joined in with the spirit of the game and they all avoided being disciplined, even Dylan Hartley!

The final was ‘ fought out’ between Newcastle University and a London Cornish representative team. Newcastle’s slightly better grasp of the touch rules came out on top as they edged the final 6-4.

For your chance to represent England at Touch, find all the info here: Open Trials