Touch rugby is the best route into Asia
Roar Guru By Midfielder, 18 Mar 2010 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
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- asia rugby, football, Fustol, International Rugby, Rugby Union
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If we were to go way back in time to around the 1920s, before rugby and football sat in somewhat a similar position, football was in front, but not by the margin it is today.
The difference is often put down to football being professional and rugby being amateur, which undoubtedly is true, and had an effect. Nevertheless another difference is the management and forward planning of both codes.
Football developed after WW1 a plan to move forward and spread the game. The World Cup was an early example of this. The European champions League, another. Further, an embracing of any form of football was seen as important.
This has taken decades and is still in play today in Asia and other areas where football is not as established as it is in other parts of the world.
The management of rugby was, and is, different.
Rugby is still in a position to expand, and to be fair to those in charge is doing so.
However, I think the brand of rugby to use as rugbys’ get in point in Asia is touch. Touch has the advantage of being easy to understand, with its fairly simple rules, and can be played with a small rock and with only a few players in small spaces.
Few get hurt with the limited body contact.
Rugby 7s comes next as a natural expansion of touch. From here, develop an interest in other brands of rugby.
As a person who is not a fixed to any particular rugby variant, I like them all.
But the one I still play is touch, the game I played in the street as a kid was touch, the game we played at training was touch – both in league and union.
In a similar position, football expands with Fustol, a game of five-a-side played on a basketball size field with a flat ball about half the size of a football.
Those running rugby have a natural product at their finger-tips but keep offering the most complex. This comes down to planning at senior international management levels.
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- Explore:
- asia rugby, football, Fustol, International Rugby, Rugby Union
March 18th 2010 @ 12:31pm
mattamkII said | March 18th 2010 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
OJ is right. There is a decent rugby community here but they will never be tier one nations..some my sneak into tier 2 one day but its a long road.
Again, I think people would be shocked at how much Rugby there is over here. In recent years Singapore, Malaysia and HK all have set up massive youth development programs through schools etc.
But the truth is Japan at full tilt is 50 point better than anyone else in Asia…and Japan are 50 + points off the big countries. The Wallabies or AB’s would do HK or Korea by 150 points.
Dave – Cobra 10′s is still big. And their club is brilliant.
March 18th 2010 @ 2:11pm
hutch said | March 18th 2010 @ 2:11pm | Report comment
dont want to get involved in any code war, but touch is a lot closer to a non contact version of rugby league. it is also playws by many in rugby union who have nothing to do with league, but the rules were orignally formed from rugby league, and the game has developed in its own way over the years just as league and union have.
March 18th 2010 @ 7:57pm
Pete said | March 18th 2010 @ 7:57pm | Report comment
I’ve seen the Aussie cricketers playing it during training. Obviously is was designed by cricketers to keep fit during the off season…
… who cares where it came from (not a having a go at you Hutch, just happend to click reply to your comment).
I’ve played touch with many guys of south East asian orgin and they make great touch players. Quick off the mark, great hands and killer steps (very Benji-esque). If they can find guys of similar ability with a bit more size they will have great 7s players… a bit of a challenge to move to 15s. Thats why I thinks JON’s idea of a Asia pacific 7s tournament is a great idea for growth in the region.
March 18th 2010 @ 2:30pm
Dave said | March 18th 2010 @ 2:30pm | Report comment
No hutch. Touch rugby in NZ and the Pacific Islands had different rules to the current ones. It was unlimited touch and you were allowed to kick. It was South Africa that started touch rugby and the Springboks brought to NZ on their tours long before Sydney leage players started playing it.
March 18th 2010 @ 3:41pm
Cugel said | March 18th 2010 @ 3:41pm | Report comment
Touch football is a league variant.
http://www.international-touch.org/
Originally had kickoffs, markers, proper play-the-balls etc.
Presumably those playing “rugby” are playing something else.
March 18th 2010 @ 3:45pm
Dave said | March 18th 2010 @ 3:45pm | Report comment
Not in New Zealand
March 18th 2010 @ 4:20pm
Kovana said | March 18th 2010 @ 4:20pm | Report comment
In samoa we have at least ’4′ versions of touch footy
1. The one where corporate companies take part in.. Just business house competition. Has the very league like 6 touches.. with touched player to roll ball between the legs , then turnover.. the team that conceded the try gets the possession at the half way mark.
2. The more well known version. 3 touches.. The tagged person can tap the ball and pass.Last tag is allowed to grubber kick… But hardly used.. Scoring team has to restart.. much like rugby 7s
3. Touch and Pass….The most annoying to me at first.. But have grown to love it.. This version is popular in Apia. Most rugby union teams use this version. There is NO tag limit. When tagged.. you can run for a certain distance.. Then you must pass.. If not, turnover to other team.. This one is more concerned with trying to WRAP the tagged person up.. So as not to allow a pass…..This version usually ends up with fights.
4. Touch and then ruck.. Mostly the club teams play this and 7s teams. Tagged person must fall to ground.. If no Cover support over the ball the defense is allowed to ‘poach’ the ball.. SO there is a contest for the ball minus the full contact.
One thing with the Last 3 versions is the very competitive restarts. Every goes for the ball at the restarts.. And it seems to have translated to how our National Sevens team has high regathering of the ball at restarts.
Anyways i agree with this article in which touch is the perfect way to introduce Asians to rugby. Asians have always been kinda shy in full contact sports.. Which is why i think they embace soccer so much… less injuries.
March 18th 2010 @ 5:45pm
mintox said | March 18th 2010 @ 5:45pm | Report comment
Simplicity is definitely the key!
Whilst FIFA have done a huge amount over the past 20 years to expand the sport into the Asian market, the simple fact is that football is a simple game for people to pick up and play.
All variations have the same rules, and all the games are just smaller versions of the real thing. Futsal, indoor soccer, beach soccer, street football, whilst slightly differing in tactics from the 11-a-side game, all have the same underlying principles as the real game.
The problem with Rugby is that, to change the sport to 7s and touch versions, you lose much of the quintessential aspects of the game. It’s all well and good to have people play touch rugby but will it make them love the sport? I live in Perth and know many people who play touch but have no interest in the real thing.
March 18th 2010 @ 7:22pm
chris said | March 18th 2010 @ 7:22pm | Report comment
Touch started in Australia in the early 1960s as a social or “park” game and as a training technique for rugby league. It was not then viewed as a sport in its own right. It was formalised into a sport proper by the “Founders of Touch”, Bob Dyke and Ray Vawdon of the South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club. On 13 July 1968 the “South Sydney Touch Football Club” was formed and the sport of Touch Football was born. The first official game of Touch was played in late 1968 and the first official competition, organised by Dyke & Vawdon, was held at Snape Park, Sydney in 1969. From these humble beginnings the game quickly became a fully regulated and codified sport. It was first played in Brisbane in 1972 and by 1973 there were representative games[2]. It had spread to New Zealand by 1975
March 18th 2010 @ 7:48pm
rugbyfuture said | March 18th 2010 @ 7:48pm | Report comment
I was under the impression that there were two types, there was whats called “touch footy” which is the league based derivative with direct lineage and a touch rugby which is basically a training drill for rugby..
March 18th 2010 @ 7:52pm
Dave said | March 18th 2010 @ 7:52pm | Report comment
Let me assure you Chris we were playing in a full competition over summer of touch rugby in Auckland in the early 70′s. It was unlimited touch and played by seven players each side.
March 19th 2010 @ 9:39am
Rod said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:39am | Report comment
Dave, I seen you on another forum stating how old you are, the same age as me, how in the world were you playing anything in the early 70′s?
March 18th 2010 @ 9:34pm
JohnB said | March 18th 2010 @ 9:34pm | Report comment
Touch is a good introduction to some (not all) of the basic skills of rugby, particularly in places which have little or no prior knowledge of rugby. Makes a lot of sense to start with touch, before adding in the elements of rugby, whether you’re in Asia, or here (and essentially that is what happens here). Touch then can either be a competitive sport in itself, or continue to be used as training for rugby (or of course league).
As a training tool, nothing to stop you from changing the rules – variants I’ve used (in Asia as it happens) include “2 ball” touch (a bit difficult to explain, but here goes: each team has a ball; at the start, the defenders leave their ball in the middle of the ground, and play goes on with the attackers’ ball; when the attackers drop the ball, or on 6 if you play it that way, the attackers’ ball is left at the place where it is dropped/the 6th touch is made, and play immediately proceeds with the defenders’ ball from where that ball was last left. On a score, the attackers’ ball is brought back to halfway, left there, and play starts with the defenders’ ball from there. In addition to regular positional, running and passing skills of touch, this gets people to think, and to realign and adjust, and has an added fitness element); “drop off” touch (a defender who makes a touch must run back past a cone in the centre of the tryline being defended before the defender can be involved in play again. This has an obvious fitness element, but also requires defenders to talk and adjust, and encourages attackers to look for overlaps); specified players must be the dummy half and first receiver (good training for numbers 9 and 10); “hit up” touch – the first (or first two or three) touches must be hit ups, with the attacker wrapped up (more a tackle than a touch).
Each of those variations is fun to play, and each of them can be varied further by playing with unlimited touches, or requiring 2-handed touches. And each of them is very useful for rugby, or progressing to rugby in my view!