A feast of the best Touch teams in Europe plus guest sides from around the World congregated for four days of top-class International Touch with a total of 17 Nations, 100 Referees, 50 volunteers and over 1200 players taking part. It was the most successful Championship to date.

To top it all Crewe & Nantwich RUFC Touch’s very own George Price led from the front as he co-captained the England Mixed Open team with a total of 10 new caps among the squad of 16 as they build towards the Touch World Cup being held in Malaysia next year.

Open Mixed Captains

Having played contact rugby at Crewe and Nantwich RUFC for many years, the former Brine Leas pupil took up Touch just over three years ago, with high hopes of wanting to achieve International honours. Julian Gilding, England Rugby Community Rugby Coach and fellow Touch player comments that, “From his first run out with the Crewe & Nantwich RUFC ‘Blaze’ Touch squad, it was obvious that his natural talent, thirst to learn, and hunger to be successful would take him places with George captaining the Blaze team for the last two years. It has been tremendous to see his incredible progress and as a club, we are so pleased for and proud of his achievements”

George in action

Over the course of the four day tournament, George and his side played exceptionally well, eventually qualifying for the semi-finals against the pre-tournament favourites Scotland, a side that had remained unbeaten in Europe over a number of years. In a breathtaking game where the scores were rarely more than one apart, a last gasp score brought the teams level at 9 all and into an extra time drop off, with one player removed from each team every two minutes. With the teams down to just 3 v 3, Scotland snatched the win. Despite the narrow loss, this was a remarkable turnaround as Scotland had beaten England 10-1 in the pool stages.
All was not lost with the team taking on France for the Bronze medal – a well fought game with England coming through the eventual winners.

The squad celebrate their European Touch Championship Bronze

Throughout the tournament George scored a total of 10 Touch downs and won 2 MVP awards, an amazing achievement that we are all proud of. It was fantastic that a total of 10 of the ‘Blaze’ squad took time to go over to Nottingham to cheer him on over the course of the Championships.

George with fellow Crewe and Nantwich RUFC Touch Blaze players Lucy, Millie, India, Phoebe and Jake