Touch, pause, engage: SA team ready for World Cup

WITH the Federation of International Touch (FIT) World Cup just a few weeks away, the national teams (which include the men’s, women’s and mixed teams) are still scrambling to raise enough money to fund their trip. The sport is not recognised by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), and each player has to raise around R50 000 to make the trip to Coffs Bay in Australia.

Northglen News recently caught up with La Lucia resident and captain of the SA women’s team, Jenna Nortier, to find out how the team is preparing for the spectacle. The former Our Lady of Fatima pupil is one of the most decorated athletes in the game of touch rugby after playing in one junior and three senior touch rugby world cups.

The best that the SA team has finished is third in the tournament; coincidentally, the country is ranked third behind hosts Australia and their Trans-Tasman rivals, New Zealand.

This World Cup is reportedly one of the biggest on record, with more than 40 teams competing.

“Touch rugby is an incredibly tactical sport. You have to outwit, outsprint and outscore the opposition with six moves. We have a great mix of youngsters and some experienced players leading up to the World Cup. We’re grouped with Papua New Guinea and Singapore, and these are teams we are not taking lightly. We underestimated Singapore in the last World Cup and we ended up drawing the game. This time around we are focused on our own performances, but also getting the basics right,” she said.

“We do want to have fun and we recognise that the global competition will be invaluable to a lot of the younger players. We’ve got some excellent finishers in the team as well as reliable workhorses.”

Nortier is also the franchise owner of Inter-Touch Durban.

“It’s been great having this platform to spread the game and give locals a chance to take part in a sport that is rapidly growing across the world. There has been amazing growth in the sport over the past few years, and I hope more people will join the league,” she said.

The Basics

THE aim of the game is to score touchdowns by getting through the opponent team’s part of the field and placing the ball down in the touchdown zone. Teams are made of up to 14 players, with a maximum of six (some local rules allow seven) players on the field at any time with unlimited substitutions.

The game lasts 45 minutes, divided into two 20 minutes halves and a five minute half-time break. Just before the game, team captains gather with the referee/s for the toss. The winner gets the ball and chooses which direction they want their team to run. The game starts with a ‘tap’ on the half way line. Each try is one point and there are no conversions.