Tough rugby

I played my first competitive game of touch rugby at lunchtime. Touch rugby is what Julia would refer to as a 'strategic ball game' and seems to be a combination between tag and rugby league. There is no kicking, no actual tackling and a turn-over every six ‘tackles’. Both women and men play in the same games and seem to function pretty much equally.

When you are defending, the knack seems to be getting back on-side quickly and closing the opposition down as soon as they play the ball. In offence the game seems to be more territorial than full-contact rugby (because you don’t have the opportunity to break the line).

As a team we moved the ball well; our discipline was good and we are all quite fast. Our problems were isolated to not putting quite enough pressure on the ball carriers and not moving the ball right quite often enough.

We won 6:1 with four different try scorers. I scored two (one in each half) and played reasonably well. I really enjoyed it. Here is Mark's write-up...

"The Knock-Ons swept to a fine 6-1 victory against the Tocsix from Chemistry yesterday. Gary and Alvaro recorded braces for the LTS side, while Guy and James scored a try each. James scored the sixth touchdown securing the Knock-Ons a deserved bonus-point. Well done everyone."

Gary Nelmes