Touch Rugby aka Touch Footy aka Touch is a minimal-contact code of Rugby.
“Touch” was invented in Australia in the 70s as a training game for rugby league. But the inclusive and fast paced nature of the game caused it to quickly outgrow its training ground roots.
It wasn’t long before thousands, then hundreds of thousands, and today, millions, of people started playing Touch around the world.
Many of the worlds best rugby players in both League and Union, like Richie Mo’unga, Marcus Smith, and Shaun Johnson learned their skills in the fast-paced game of Touch.
[pics of famous touch players]
While Touch is an amateur sport, there are many high performance tournaments around the world, like the Trans-Tasman, European Championships, and World Cup.
Touch Rugby is governed by the Federation of International Touch (FIT).
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So, how do you play?
Touch is played on a 60m by 40m pitch: the same dimensions as half a full-size rugby pitch.
There are six players on each team, with rolling substitutes, like ice hockey.
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Passing works the same as the other codes of rugby, you have to pass the ball backwards. But Touch is played with a slightly smaller ball.
As the name suggests, there’s no tackling in Touch. Instead of a tackle, the defending team must touch the opposing attacker. A one handed touch, anywhere on the body or clothing will do.
Once the touch has been made, the defender should call “touch!” so everyone knows—when you brush a bit of shirt it’s not always obvious.
When a touch is made, the attacker must place the ball on the ground, and step over it. This is called the “roll-ball” or “dump”.
If the attacker dumps the ball in the wrong place, it is a penalty, and the ball is turned over.
If the attacker rolls the ball incorrectly, the ball is turned over.
When a touch is made, the defending team are all instantly offside, and must retreat to the offside line. This is called by the referee, and is supposed to be 7 metres from the roll-ball.
Touches made by offside players don’t count. The referee will either call “play on” or call a penalty.
After the ball is dumped, another attacker must pick it up. This attacker is called the “dummy half”, or “half”. The dummy half cannot score. If the dummy half is touched, the ball is immediately turned over to the opposing team.
After six touches, the ball is turned over, and the opposing team get to attack starting with touch 1.
The aim of the game is to score tries, which you do by touching the ball down on or behind the opposing team’s try line.
There are some technicalities, but that’s basically it! Enjoy playing 🏉