State Cup round-up, New South Wales edition

England enjoyed a positive weekend in Port Macquarie, notching several wins across all three categories.

In the Men’s Open England opened with an 11-4 loss to Parramatta, but after that their matches were extremely competitive, with two losses by just the one try to Hornsby and Newcastle, two tries to Canterbury and three tries to Bankstown.

England’s tour finished with a clash with Singapore, and after Dom Brook finished off Josh Henderson’s interception for an end-to-end sucker punch, our men did not look back. Will Tyrrell, Brook again, Ed Hayward, Dom Tripp, Brook again for his hat trick, and Ellis Watts got the tries in a 7-3 final score.

Like the men, the Women’s Open found themselves on the wrong end of a sizeable score in their first game against Wests. But this was followed by a draw against Central Coast, and while there was a loss to Canterbury there was a win enjoyed against Wallsend before a one-try defeat to Hills.

As with the men, England finished off with an international game against Singapore. The opposition went ahead, but when Carly Wynne finished off a long pass in the corner before coming in off her wing to score a second it handed the team a lead they would not relinquish. Georgina McKavanagh, Sophia Barkham, Bronte Sykes, Nikki Wise and Lauren Fagan got the other tries in a 7-2 final score.

The two Opens teams were joined by the Women’s 35 for the weekend, and they had three days to remember in northern New South Wales.

The tone was set in the first match, a 4-1 win over UNSW, and while day one had a pair of losses against Sharks and Northern Beaches, day two started with a 5-4 win over Mudgee and a 7-2 success against Coffs Harbour. A final round loss to Balmain saw the Women’s 35 finish in mid-table, before a scheduled friendly against Singapore WO was cancelled.

England’s High Performance training camps resume in the New Year.

Next summer sees England host the Touch World Cup for the first time. 2024 will be the tenth Touch World Cup, and early indications are that it will be considerably larger than the previous event in Putrajaya, Malaysia, in 2019.

The University of Nottingham’s Highfields Sports Complex will host teams from across the globe, entrenching the venue’s place as the home of international Touch in England, following the 2018 and 2022 European Touch Championships and 2023 Atlantic Youth Touch Cup.

Partnership opportunities are now available, both for the event as well as England’s national teams. Email Chris Simon via chris.simon@englandtouch.org.uk for more information.