Touch rugby is a hit in Stafford

The O2 Touch Rugby group is focussed on promoting participation in the sport through touch rugby, a non-contact version of the game.

And with the Staffordshire-born players Dan Robson and Ben White performing at the highest level for their clubs and country, more people than ever are attending the get-togethers in Stafford.

James van Nijkerk runs the sessions at Rowley Park twice a week, and he firmly believes that touch rugby is the best way to connect people with the sport.

“It’s a non-contact form of rugby and it’s to get people who have either fallen out of the game or were injured playing the game, as competitive a version of rugby as they can,” he said.

“Getting people who’ve thought that they can’t play because they’re expecting big burly blokes just running at them.

“And it’s a mixed version, so lots of dads and sons and mums and daughters play it. It’s open to anybody.

“I now run the sessions. So I do a Wednesday night which is mixed, and a ladies only on a Friday. The Stafford club has been running for seven years, I’ve been involved for four, four-and-a-half years.”

A wide range of players attend the sessions, from those just starting out, all the way up to veterans of the game. And keeping newcomers involved in the sport is highly important to van Nijkerk.

“Our oldest member is Joey, who I would say politely is 65-70. So we get a good mixture of ages and abilities,” he said.

“It’s not a case of people will go off and create their own teams, We will put them into teams, create the teams to make sure they are balanced. We’ll put stronger players with weaker players.

“We’ll put people who have only just started with more experienced players so they get to learn the game and people can talk them through.

“We only have an hour so if someone’s new, it’s very difficult to run through the rules quickly with them.

“So, we will put long-term members who have been coming down week-on-week with new members, buddy them up and make sure they’re happy and walk through the games as we go along.

“We referee and it depends on you who are as to how tough we penalise people. If you’re more experienced you will get penalised more, if you’re a new player then we’ll coach you a little bit.”

With the national team gearing up for the Rugby World Cup this autumn, and finishing second in this year’s edition of the Six Nations, van Nijkerk believes that the international side’s success will encourage more people to take part.

“It will grow. I think people get a bit disillusioned with other sports. And as long as the national team do well, whether that’s the Roses, under-20s, England men’s, people will get attracted,” he added.

“To do this side of it, they are starting to stream it on youtube, the last one was in Nottingham which was streamed on the BBC Red Button.

“If they can push that a little bit more, people will understand it a bit more and people will get more involved in it.

“We took a group of kids down to Bristol to see a player who came through the Stafford ranks. The ladies, we’ve just started a Roses section, and it’s going great guns.

“We’re taking 100 of them down to Twickenham. And we’re finding on a Friday more mums and daughters are now playing together, which is a great thing to see.

“Once they’ve found their feet on that, they’re coming over to Wednesday nights because they feel as though they can fit in, it is a gentle sport.”

Touch rugby is on the rise across the UK, with national tournaments held regularly.

And with the Stafford O2 sessions being so successful the group are now looking to send a team to these events.

“We’re looking to get into the English Touch Association which is a national competition. We had a couple of guys go to the over-50 England trials,” van Nijkerk said. “They play it internationally now and they play it nationally over in Australia and New Zealand. It’s picking up over here.

“They do six national tournaments a year with about 60-70 teams going down, of all different ages.

“There’s mixed, single sex, open, over-40s, over-50s, so you’re not just going to get little whippets running around the place. You’re going to find your level and be able to stick at that.

“We are finding as we are growing that there’s a set that want to be more competitive and a set that want to be a bit more friendly.”

The Stafford group are looking to enter the final tournament of the year as a development side in September, and van Nijkerk revealed his pride at being involved in helping players take up the sport.

“I do find it rewarding. It is nice when you see people who have never played the game before or just coming back,” he said.

“We have people of all shapes and sizes and abilities playing the game. And it is nice to see them develop and take a growing confidence with it.

“The club does stuff with MAR which is the mixed ability rugby, so you have people who have had strokes and with Down’s syndrome.

“So again, there’s a fair range of people that play it. More the merrier and anyone’s welcome.”