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Tom Chick

Following on from UR7s’ look at the growth of Beach rugby, we now take a closer in depth look at another format of the game that has been on the rise.

Last week saw the 40th anniversary of the first ever moon landing and as Neil Armstrong did then, rugby has been taking its very own giant leaps in recent times in all aspects of the game.

There is the very strong possibility that Rugby Sevens should, dare I say will be, added to the illustrious list of Olympic Sports when the IOC make their decision in October.

Add to this the growth in stature of summer rugby, both tag and beach formats including the hugely popular O2 Scrum on the Beach, and one wouldn’t be blamed for thinking what else this diverse sport could throw our way.

In fact, another format of the game has been growing in stature ever since its creation in Australia in the 1960’s, coincidentally the same decade as Apollo 11 famously landed on the moon, in the shape of Touch Rugby.

Touch littered with Sevens talent

You don’t even have to look that far to see how Touch can and has helped the development of international players and cemented its place as a professional competitive sport in its own right.

One example is Drumayne Dryberg Muir, who was named the Most Valuable Player when he helped Australia win the Touch World Cup in 2007.

The stunning footwork from the mercurial Dryberg Muir also saw Australia Sevens coach Michael O’Connor select him to be part of this year’s IRB Sevens World Series – participating in the Dubai and South Africa legs.

In addition, the current and inaugural Rugby World Cup Sevens Women’s Champions, Australia, had four Touch players in their ranks.

Bo De La Cruz, Rebecca Tavo, Shelley Matcham and Nicole Beck were all ‘touchies’ before being drafted into the Australian Sevens squad as part of the deliberate strategy by the Australian Rugby Union to target the country's elite Touch ranks.

Touch is its own professional sport

De La Cruz, a nine-year Touch veteran including two Touch World Cup titles in Japan 2003 and South Africa 2007, was a standout player in Dubai, scoring four tries en route to the final and came off the bench to score the match-turning try against South Africa in the semis and she believes Touch is an essential tool behind any players development. 

“Touch is a great game to play and the fundamental skills you get out of it are phenomenal. In Touch everything has to be pin point - passing, running with the ball, hitting holes, timing, and putting defenders in places to execute moves well.

“Touch is its own professional sport. We train and play as hard as any other sport and when you see Touch played at the top level it’s really an amazing game. Touch skills can be used in any sport really but obviously we like to develop skills to play Touch and keep them in the sport. But if there are any girls or boys wanting to go on and make a sporting career out of Rugby Union or League, Touch is a great game to get into as it does give you every type of skill needed to play those two sports,” said the wing.

Even her head coach, Jason Stanton, was part of the ARU’s attention to Touch. He is the current Australian men’s Touch representative and the synergy created is another bonus that De La Cruz and her teammates were able to take advantage of in Dubai.

“Jason is the mastermind of Touch rugby in the world and one of the best Touch players I have ever seen. In Dubai, Jason was amazing, his whole focus was on us. After every game he would analyse the game inside and out, and knew everything that we had to do for the next game and fortunately for us it worked every time - he is amazing.

“I loved the transition (to Sevens) and what made it easier were the girls in my team, they helped me out so much it. I still play Touch, I don’t think I’ll ever stop. Touch and Sevens have their own awesome draw cards that make me love playing them equally,” added De La Cruz.

Mixed category another incentive

Touch Rugby is the only format of rugby, and one of very few sports, which can see mixed-gender teams playing on the same field.

The Touch World Cup, which has been running since 1988 with the next one to be held in Scotland in 2011 includes a mixed category, and Benji Marshall, who won the Rugby League World Cup with New Zealand in 2008, began his career winning the mixed Touch World Cup in 2003 with Australia.

Mike Abromowitz, an advocate of the sport as one of the coordinators for In 2 Touch (who run the leagues in England) as well as playing for and coaching England, believes that the mixed capacity is just one of many reasons why the game has progressed to where it is now.

“The game has come on immensely in the last six or seven years. There used to be five or six countries who played Touch competitively in Europe, now there are around 20.

“One of the reasons for this is because it is easy to access and is a very social game. You don’t need any tags, any goalposts - all you need is four cones or jumpers and a ball. A lot of the game relies on honesty too and there is still an amateur nature to the game which makes it such a great game to play – but if you want to progress to representative level then you can.”

6-Down in World Games?

The 6-a-side game – not quite Sevens! – gets its roots from Rugby League, with each side having six phases of play once being touched by an opponent, and is why the South Africans call it 6-down. It promotes fundamental skills such as running, handling, evasion and support play without the contact elements of the 7s or 15s game.

“I think it is the best form of game to teach you the skills required in rugby and in fact, I think the skill levels of the top players in Touch, I believe, are sometimes better than that of those at the top level of 15s and even 7s. The ball skills and the vision that these players have I would suggest are generally better,” said Abromowitz.

Who knows, if Sevens gets into the Olympics perhaps we will see Touch in the World Games in years to come and it is already part of the Pacific Games set up.

“If Sevens was to get into the Olympics, of course I would love to see Touch take its place in the World Games if something was going to get the chance to. I think the main attraction to Touch is the mixed-gender side to it. If people were to look at Touch seriously, then they would see that it offers something completely different.

 “Generally speaking men have a little bit more speed, but also, generally speaking, females are tactically better than men so combining the two makes for a great combination,” added Abromowitz.

All that is needed to play is a rugby ball and some players, so get yourself involved, and while you are at it, help get rugby into the Olympics – see how you can PLAY YOUR PART...