Melbourne University Touch Club Go To Thailand

During the recent winter break, a group of Melbourne University Touch Club (aka Touch UM) players travelled to Thailand to partake in the 6th Asia Club Touch Championships, in lieu of the annual Australian University Sport - Southern Challenge.  The team first went to Bangkok for the Tournament and then spent a few days on the way home in Singapore conducting some coaching clinics and playing in a number of exhibition games. With a few players having never left Australia before, it was going to be a fantastic cultural crash course as well. 

With Mixed, Men’s, Women’s and Senior Men’s divisions, the Asian Championships saw around 30 teams from over 10 countries across Asia attend. However, due to the previous months’ political unrest in Thailand, we were the only invitational team from Australia to still make the trek north. Playing seven round robin games over the length of the tournament, Touch UM came through undefeated with a 7 win 1 draw record, including a rather impressive 8-2 win over Monsoon Touch Club; the previous year’s Champions and a team stacked full of Singapore National team representatives. The team were excellent ambassadors for the University, running impromptu coaching clinics for various teams and trying to recruit the younger players at the tournament to come to the University of Melbourne. 

The final results for the Mixed division:

1. Melbourne University Touch Club (Australia)
2. Monsoon Touch Club (Singapore)
3. Brotown Touch Club (Singapore)
4. Zhong Kui Touch Club (China)
5. Hong Kong Representative Team (Hong Kong, China)
6. Seoul Touch Club (South Korea)
7. Southerners Touch Club (Thailand)
8. Beijing Devils (China)

After the tournament, the team went to Singapore for four days, playing and training with local teams. This included coaching clinics, conducted with two local Universities, the Women’s Under-20s Singapore team and the Senior Mixed Singapore Team. The team also played exhibition games against the Singapore Youth National training squad (winning 11 – 3) and four other University or club teams. At every opportunity the players would swap training and playing shirts with the local teams, or exchange emails and Facebook details; creating many friendships along the way. The trip was extremely rewarding for all the players and the Club would like to thank the University of Melbourne and all those who contributed to the success of the tour. 

In late news, the extra playing experience gained on tour has certainly paid off. Since returning, 13 out of 14 players in the team have been invited to join the Victorian Opens Training Squads. For most, this will be their first opportunity to represent Victoria at the highest level.

The Melbourne University Touch Club celebrate a successful tournament in Thailand.