John Larkins: Coach bringing a fresh touch to UAE rugby

13:07 04/12/2013
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • For the very many of us who prefer to look on from the sidelines than get involved in the ruckfest that is a game of rugby union, you might be surprised to hear that there’s a game which falls somewhere between a harmless kickaround in the park and the full-blown affair.

    Touch rugby is all about running, beating your man, or woman, and passing it to a team-mate. Once the player in possession is “touched” by an opponent, they must surrender possession.

    The rucks, the mauls, the big hits – all the unpleasantness – are taken out of the equation, and the result is a jolly good time.

    Touch rugby has come to the UAE in a big way under the guidance of Kiwi John Larkins who realised there was a real market for the concept here. Sport360° caught up with him to find out more about the game and his company UAE Touch.

    Were you surprised there wasn’t much touch rugby being played in the UAE? I guess the game is very prevalent in Australia and New Zealand, so I assumed it was popular in the British Isles as well. There are 53 international associations in the world. When I was talking to teachers and students in the schools here in Abu Dhabi, 80-90 per cent of them had never even seen the game before. It surprised me.

    So really since I’ve been here we’ve had to start right from scratch with children on the basic skills, catch and pass and generally using a rugby ball. There’s been a bit of touch played here historically over the years, but nobody was actually playing to correct rules. I think it was just played here as a nonsense really, before rugby training, just a social muck-around game. 

    I don’t think people realise there’s a World cup every four years. There was a European Championship in Italy four months ago, there were 3,000 people playing there.

    It’s very popular in New Zealand and Australia? The NRL and Touch Australia have a great relationship; they have a database of about one million players. Down there you play touch before you go and play rugby proper…..and then, when you’re older, you play both at the same time.

    Most of the international rugby players in New Zealand and Australia today either still play touch competitively or have played it in the past. Liam Messam (Chiefs) still plays high-level competitive touch in New Zealand.

    And so the guys use the game essentially to hone their skills. It helps for catching and passing. It doesn’t teach them to tackle, but it does help in a lot of facets of the game.

    Can playing touch help players develop into proper rugby players? You have to look at the game and accept it for what it is – it’s not rugby and it’s not trying to be rugby either. It’s its own game, but can it help rugby players? I personally believe it can. I think there’s a distinct lack of skill in a lot of the rugby I’ve seen played here. When I say skill, I mean ball skills. 

    The All Blacks of today played a lot of touch growing up and they seem like they have, amongst other things, quite a high skill level – the forwards specifically.

    …and this comes from touch? I’m not saying it’s all from touch. I’m saying that touch gives you the ability to develop some of those techniques in a non-competitive format.

    What is touch about? It’s about effectively beating your man with the ball or using evasion. And so, if you’re practising that continually – if you’re playing touch twice a week and playing rugby on top of that – then you’re getting the best of both worlds. So that’s the competitive aspect of it.

    We’re trying to say to rugby players who are here at the moment, you can improve your fitness, you can practise your ball skills, and it is about practice. It gives you a chance to practise these skills in a competitive format where there is no contact.

    And UAE Touch is working hard in the schools to get this point across? I guess the message I’m trying to get out there is the family aspect. We do run social leagues, there are social opportunities, there’s also competitive action, but we really want to concentrate on the kids in the schools.

    We are really looking to get sponsors and partners on board with our initiatives now. We have competitions coming up. We ran our last competition as a trial for under-9s and under-11s, and we got more than twenty teams – all of whom had to learn from scratch.

    Not one single school had a touch team, so we went into the schools and taught during the day. We’re even looking after three and four year-olds.

    We are bringing one school to the All-Asian Schools championship and another to the European championships.

    Etihad Touch Academy will be starting classes for all interested players, aged 5-18, in Abu Dhabi this month – email [email protected] for more details or check out the UAE Touch Facebook page and website for updates. UAE Touch will also begin operating in Dubai from Dubai Sports City in September with the introduction of UAE Touch Academy classes based at the DSC grounds.

    * For breaking news, follow us on @Sport_360 or find us on Facebook.

    Recommended