All Schools Touch speaks to Wales Mixed Open player / coach, Gareth Revell about Touch in Wales and why he believes Wales can one day challenge Australia and New Zealand if the player base is increased.
Gareth Revell in action for Wales Mixed Open during the European Touch Championships in Swansea 2014. Picture - Howard Goldberg
Gareth Revell is the player / coach of Wales Mixed Open who travel to Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia for the Touch World Cup at the end of April. A well-known play-maker on the Touch fields, renowned for his long passes, deceptive running despite topping six foot and his committed and passionate approach to the game.
Revell originally played rugby but made the switch full time to Touch upon being invited to train with the Wales squad in 2006. It was the technical aspects of the game that appealed:
"The initial draw was the amount of time I got the ball in hand during a game (especially compared to rugby), and the emphasis on skill execution. As the years have gone by, it's the technical nature that has kept me interested. The game changes constantly and keeps you learning."
In Wales, it's fair to say that the vast majority of male players come to Touch as adults who cross-over from rugby union. Either because they can no longer play rugby because of the physical demands on the body or as a summer training aid in the off-season.
However, there are more and more teams emerging that make Touch their main focus and want to compete at the highest level, as Gareth explains;
"Now a lot of people play Touch from March through to October, with some teams training year-round, so there are more people who just play Touch."
Furthermore, following Wales' victory in the inaugural Junior European Touch Championships last summer in Swansea, more and more youngsters are becoming attracted to the game earlier. In fact, Wales are taking no fewer than 11 teenage players to the Touch World Cup this year. Four of the these teenage players first played Touch in school in Llanelli.
There are many reasons that young people are attracted to the game. Firstly, if you remove all the contact aspects of rugby union or rugby league, you are left with a highly skillful and enjoyable game whereby attackers have to rely on their wits and superior technical skill in order to wrong-foot defenders in order to create space in which to score Touchdowns (not tries as in rugby).
Secondly, Touch is an extremely fast and dynamic game which constantly flows. The large amount of ball-in-play time perhaps appeals to the current generation of teenagers accused of having shorter attention spans. There are no scrums or line-outs in Touch which means very few stoppages or rest. Touch has 2 x 20 minutes halves in which the ball is very rarely 'dead' - usually only after a Touchdown is scored.
Thirdly, the game perhaps appeals to youngsters who are not attracted to the traditional contact versions of the oval-ball game. Many youngsters are reluctant to play rugby because of the rough-stuff, however, Touch presents a more appealing prospect - a skill-based game where being stronger or more physical than your opponent doesn't necessarily mean any advantage. Touch is also one of the few sports in which there are opportunities for females to join males on the same pitch or play in female-only teams.
Touch is incredibly popular down under and the 2015 edition of the Touch World Cup is shaping up to by far the biggest and best TWC to date and it is being hosted by the country that invented and codified the game in the 1960s.
By now, Touch (or Touch Football / Footy as the Aussies call it) is played by hundreds of thousands of males and females of all ages throughout the country. In school programmes alone, over 500,000 Australian children regularly play the game and there are over 400,000 registered Touch players. Touch is one of the highest organised participation sports in Australia and is even accounting for future Olympians with Touch players such as Emilee Cherry making the cross-over from elite Touch to the Australian Women's Sevens team.
However, despite pleasing performances in the Touch Euros in Swansea last summer, Wales' teams still have a long way to go before they can compete with the Aussies and Kiwis. Australia have won every Touch World Cup since it's inception in 1987.
Australia will be hot favourites to retain their title on home soil at the hugely impressive C.ex Coffs International Stadium over four days at the end of April and beginning of May. New Zealand will run them very close in certain categories, but the truth is that there is a big gulf between Australia and New Zealand and the rest of the Touch nations competing at TWC2015.
Gareth explains why this is the case:
"Until recent years, Welsh players had been learning the game as adults, while many Australians are starting at 7-years-old and getting a big head start. To catch up, we need to get more people playing and get them playing earlier."
Kids in Aus/NZ are first introduced to rugby via the six-a-side Touch version and many would argue that it's the years spent honing their passing, running and evasion skills on the Touch field that produce the Wallaby and All Black players with superior skill levels and the ability to find space on the rugby pitch.
There are clear benefits to introducing Touch to youngsters in Wales and this is something the Wales Touch Association (WTA) are keen to see happening.
Not content with playing and coaching at the international level, Gareth is also on the board of directors of the WTA as Technical Director and explains the WTA's vision;
"The WTA would like to see participation numbers grow considerably and definitely in areas beyond Cardiff and RCT. The growth in Swansea and Llanelli over recent years has been excellent. Pushing it further afield is the ultimate goal, both at the participation level and competitively."
"Some schools in Wales play Touch already, thanks to people like Matt Adams, Sion Wyn Davies and others. Getting Touch into more schools is a big priority."
The strategy is simply that the more people that play Touch and from a younger age will result in more competition to become an elite Touch player. This will result in Welsh national teams becoming far stronger and having a much larger pool of potential players. It is only then that Wales can become capable of beating the very best;
Revell originally played rugby but made the switch full time to Touch upon being invited to train with the Wales squad in 2006. It was the technical aspects of the game that appealed:
"The initial draw was the amount of time I got the ball in hand during a game (especially compared to rugby), and the emphasis on skill execution. As the years have gone by, it's the technical nature that has kept me interested. The game changes constantly and keeps you learning."
In Wales, it's fair to say that the vast majority of male players come to Touch as adults who cross-over from rugby union. Either because they can no longer play rugby because of the physical demands on the body or as a summer training aid in the off-season.
However, there are more and more teams emerging that make Touch their main focus and want to compete at the highest level, as Gareth explains;
"Now a lot of people play Touch from March through to October, with some teams training year-round, so there are more people who just play Touch."
Furthermore, following Wales' victory in the inaugural Junior European Touch Championships last summer in Swansea, more and more youngsters are becoming attracted to the game earlier. In fact, Wales are taking no fewer than 11 teenage players to the Touch World Cup this year. Four of the these teenage players first played Touch in school in Llanelli.
There are many reasons that young people are attracted to the game. Firstly, if you remove all the contact aspects of rugby union or rugby league, you are left with a highly skillful and enjoyable game whereby attackers have to rely on their wits and superior technical skill in order to wrong-foot defenders in order to create space in which to score Touchdowns (not tries as in rugby).
Secondly, Touch is an extremely fast and dynamic game which constantly flows. The large amount of ball-in-play time perhaps appeals to the current generation of teenagers accused of having shorter attention spans. There are no scrums or line-outs in Touch which means very few stoppages or rest. Touch has 2 x 20 minutes halves in which the ball is very rarely 'dead' - usually only after a Touchdown is scored.
Thirdly, the game perhaps appeals to youngsters who are not attracted to the traditional contact versions of the oval-ball game. Many youngsters are reluctant to play rugby because of the rough-stuff, however, Touch presents a more appealing prospect - a skill-based game where being stronger or more physical than your opponent doesn't necessarily mean any advantage. Touch is also one of the few sports in which there are opportunities for females to join males on the same pitch or play in female-only teams.
Touch is incredibly popular down under and the 2015 edition of the Touch World Cup is shaping up to by far the biggest and best TWC to date and it is being hosted by the country that invented and codified the game in the 1960s.
By now, Touch (or Touch Football / Footy as the Aussies call it) is played by hundreds of thousands of males and females of all ages throughout the country. In school programmes alone, over 500,000 Australian children regularly play the game and there are over 400,000 registered Touch players. Touch is one of the highest organised participation sports in Australia and is even accounting for future Olympians with Touch players such as Emilee Cherry making the cross-over from elite Touch to the Australian Women's Sevens team.
However, despite pleasing performances in the Touch Euros in Swansea last summer, Wales' teams still have a long way to go before they can compete with the Aussies and Kiwis. Australia have won every Touch World Cup since it's inception in 1987.
Australia will be hot favourites to retain their title on home soil at the hugely impressive C.ex Coffs International Stadium over four days at the end of April and beginning of May. New Zealand will run them very close in certain categories, but the truth is that there is a big gulf between Australia and New Zealand and the rest of the Touch nations competing at TWC2015.
Gareth explains why this is the case:
"Until recent years, Welsh players had been learning the game as adults, while many Australians are starting at 7-years-old and getting a big head start. To catch up, we need to get more people playing and get them playing earlier."
Kids in Aus/NZ are first introduced to rugby via the six-a-side Touch version and many would argue that it's the years spent honing their passing, running and evasion skills on the Touch field that produce the Wallaby and All Black players with superior skill levels and the ability to find space on the rugby pitch.
There are clear benefits to introducing Touch to youngsters in Wales and this is something the Wales Touch Association (WTA) are keen to see happening.
Not content with playing and coaching at the international level, Gareth is also on the board of directors of the WTA as Technical Director and explains the WTA's vision;
"The WTA would like to see participation numbers grow considerably and definitely in areas beyond Cardiff and RCT. The growth in Swansea and Llanelli over recent years has been excellent. Pushing it further afield is the ultimate goal, both at the participation level and competitively."
"Some schools in Wales play Touch already, thanks to people like Matt Adams, Sion Wyn Davies and others. Getting Touch into more schools is a big priority."
The strategy is simply that the more people that play Touch and from a younger age will result in more competition to become an elite Touch player. This will result in Welsh national teams becoming far stronger and having a much larger pool of potential players. It is only then that Wales can become capable of beating the very best;
 Gareth in a training game for Wales MXO against Wales Men's Open at Cardiff Arms Park. Both teams travel to Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia in April for the Touch World Cup. Picture - Howard Goldberg | "Personally, I would like to see our national teams beating Australia and New Zealand. I was once told that it will never happen and I refuse to believe that. Winning European Championships would be part of that process, which is something a couple of our age-grade teams have achieved but not our open-grade teams in recent years." Gareth acknowledges the importance of introducing competitive junior opportunities in order to locate the next generation of national Touch players; "This year's inaugural All-Schools Champs in Llanelli is an important event for the sport in Wales. The WTA will have representatives there in various capacities, one of which will be talent identification. |
Our national teams have successful track record of selecting players between 14-16 years old, who are not only capable of competing in the short term but with also one eye on the future. I think we're heading in the right direction...but there's still lots of work still to do."
The message is clear for PE teachers and sports officers. There are huge benefits to introducing Touch programmes in school and by bringing teams to the All Schools tournament in Llanelli this July, talented students could well find themselves invited to join the WTA's Elite Academy.
Who knows perhaps some players representing their school in 2015 could eventually represent Wales at the next Touch World Cup in Malaysia in 2019.
Tournament registration is now open for #ASTC2015. The tournament takes place at Ysgol Y Strade, Llanelli on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July 2015. Further details and registration are available here
The message is clear for PE teachers and sports officers. There are huge benefits to introducing Touch programmes in school and by bringing teams to the All Schools tournament in Llanelli this July, talented students could well find themselves invited to join the WTA's Elite Academy.
Who knows perhaps some players representing their school in 2015 could eventually represent Wales at the next Touch World Cup in Malaysia in 2019.
Tournament registration is now open for #ASTC2015. The tournament takes place at Ysgol Y Strade, Llanelli on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July 2015. Further details and registration are available here
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