Information on touch rugby
Touch rugby is a popular variant of the game. In some places organized
competitions are held (often with teams comprised of both men and
women). These competitions are usually run by Touch Associations (note
its just plain "Touch") which have nothing to do with rugby authorities.
In the USA a version of Touch is encouraged by the US rugby folks for
school age children and this version of
youth rugby is an official sport for the Junior Olympics. (For more
information about the rules and competitions, contact Nigel Willis
Nigelremax@aol.com.)
However, it is widely played just for the practice it gives
for basic passing skills and of course for the sheer fun of it. Not everybody
seems to agree on whether touch is necessarily good skills practice
and some introduce variations to the rules to reduce tendencies that are
bad in real rugby. What follows are the essentials for those who just want
to try it out at practice or the beach. If you're serious, then try and
contact a local Touch Association.
Rules for touch rugby
Courtesy of ihale@cs.strath.ac.uk (Iain D W Hale CS90)
- Play is started by a tap penalty
- At penalties, opposition must be back 10 meters
- When a player is touched that is a tackle
- If six 'Touches' have gone by without a score the ball changes sides
- No kicking
- If the ball goes forward or hits the ground then it changes side
- 'Touch' restarts are by passing the ball through the legs at the point
of touch to a 'Dummy Half' who if he is touched the ball changes side.
- Opposition must be back 5 meters after a touch, any player not back 5
is out of the game.
- If the ball is passed after a touch then the ball changes sides.
allanc@cs.su.oz.au (Allan Creighton) adds:
In the Dundas Valley Club competition, in Sydney,
the above applies but
- The dummy half cannot score
- Touching the ball does NOT count as a touch
there is probably more, lots of penalties if backchatted/offside etc....
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Some interesting variants for inclusion at rugby practice include (note
that Touch Associations would frown on these):
- allow an immediate pass after touch to encourage support
- require a touch to be two-handed and below the waist to discourage
high tackling in the real thing
- allow a touched player's team mate, within 3 secs of the touch, to
rip the ball away, turn and pass it to a person acting as halfback or
just running past --- again to encourage support
- require two touches in quick succession to encourage support for
the tackler