For the 2022 European Touch Championships (ETC) held in Nottingham, England from August 2^nd to 6th, Luxembourg sent a Men’s Over 30s team and 1 referee representative. There were over 1000 players and 150 officials from 17 countries competing over the 5 days.

Our Luxembourg M30 team performed valiantly with a small squad of 11 players, which went down to 10, and then 9 for the last 3 games, whilst nearly all the other teams had squads of 14-16. Needless to say it was a gruelling tournament physically, but throughout all their games they continued to give 100% effort.

Playing against England, France and Ireland, we were pitted against world class sides with large squads and player pools. For example in England there are over 500,000 registered Touch players, we have 48! We did well to hold our shape and composure in heavy losses to the heavyweights of touch in Europe, however our chances to excel would come against the smaller touch playing nations of Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden.

You can check out our full results here: https://www.internationaltouch.org/events/euros/2022/mens-30/

Picture gallery here: https://touch-luxembourg.lu/2022-european-touch-championships-gallery/

Belgium proved too strong for us wearing us down towards the end of the match with their superior structure and pace. They went on to the bronze medal play-off which they lost to France after a close and hard-fought match.

Our loss to Switzerland in the pool match had some positives with us finishing strongly and drawing the 2^nd half 4-4 and earning the praise of FIT board member and Switzerland M45 coach Mike Abramowitz, commenting that we showed a lot of fight and had a great never-say-never attitude. Final result was a 7-4 loss.

Our final pool match was our eagerly awaited game against Sweden, who going into the final round of pool games were also without a win. Whilst they are a newly formed touch nation they had recruited Peter Walters as their coach as part of their preparation, and we had noticed them improving throughout the tournament no doubt due to Peter’s great knowledge of the game and coaching experience.

Unfortunately our previous habits flowed through and a slow start entailed. Basic errors were made and with Sweden’s try-line attack functioning well in the early stages we found ourselves behind. Unfortunately a touch no-touch call by our tournament top try-scorer Jean-Charles Wiart saw has down to 5 men for 4 possessions. Another try to Sweden ensued.

Our own attack started to click though and we went into half-time 3-2 behind. We started strong in the 2^nd half with Nick Frank racking up a hat-trick early in the 2^nd stanza. However we continued to turnover possession early and with some close calls seemingly going against us, we weren’t able to peg back the deficit, eventually losing 7-5.

After losing our quarter-final to France we went into the final day of games with moral quite low, having suffered 7 straight defeats and being down to only 9 players and furthermore our star defensive Mid Thomas Blondel restricted in movement but still valiantly playing on with a groin injury sustained against France. However our re-match with Sweden and a chance for revenge in our play-off game awaited.

Our legs were tired but we knew Sweden were there for the taking, and for once we started well! With 9 players we were inevitably tiring but we noticed the Swedish team were also. We went into half time ahead 3-2 and feeling confident.

The 2^nd half was an arm-wrestle and the game eventually became tied up at 4-4. However we kept our structure and a quick scoop play from Antoine Pfaltzgraff gave us the lead back with 5 minutes left on the clock. From there thanks to our injured Link turned Manager extra-ordinaire Dave “no-ribs” Atkinsons who kept our guys in the middle informed of the time remaining, we managed to defend well and hold-on. Finally victory was tasted with our 5-4 win! Whilst it was somewhat sweet it was also quite a relief as going back to Luxembourg empty handed was the worst fear for quite a few of us.

We weren’t done yet, well, we kind of were?! Because of this win we earned the right to play Switzerland again in the 5^th/6^th playoff game. It was a mental struggle as well as a physical one to get up for this last game with so much effort going into the previous one against Sweden. However as with our other games we battled right until the very end with only 9 players and lost 8-2, after managing to restrict Switzerland to only a 2-0 half-time lead.

Whilst it wasn’t our best performance at the Euros our campaign did leave us with some positives with our overall structure holding firm and our never-say-die being admirable. However, we know we have a lot to work on and will continue to develop towards the 2023 European Touch Championships and beyond.

A special mention also goes to Laurence Cortey, our elite referee representative who refereed at the 2022 ETC. Laurence is a Level 2 qualified Touch Europe referee and adjudicated an abundance of games at the Euros including a “top-seeds” match between England & Scotland in the Women’s Open section. Her final game was refereeing the Bronze play-off game of the Women’s over 27s division, quite an achievement.

Cheers

If you are in Luxembourg and would like to be part of the 2023 European Touch Championships or play or be involved in Touch in anyway, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: luxembourgtouch@gmail.com. New players, ideas, and support/sponsorship are always welcome!

Touch Luxembourg

Luxembourg Mens Over 30s team is looking forward to the 2022 European Touch Champs (ETCs) to be held in Nottingham once again in 2022 after a 4 year hiatus due to Covid-19.

The ETCs were last held in Nottingham in the summer of 2018, and with the 2020 Championships inevitably cancelled, the Luxembourg National Touch Association (NTA) was more than happy when the 2022 was tournament was confirmed in Nottingham, UK on August 2^nd-6th.

In Jan 2022 our NTA held discussions it was decided that only a Men’s Over 30s team would be entered in the 2022 ETCs. Player numbers suffered slightly over the last few years due to Covid-19, however in recent months we are now seeing a return to touch as it was previously, with new and old players arriving on the pitch again in recent months and the return of our Summer Social league for social and Corporate teams.

Our Mens 30s began their training early in the new year and with the unfortunate hiccups of a couple of withdrawals and injuries along the way, the journey has been an arduous one it times, but one that us made as stronger as a team and perhaps even more determined to do our best and gain some results at the championships.

We have been hitting the pitch for trainings every other Sunday right through the depths of winter, and have ramped up our trainings as the tournament draws closer to ensure we are match ready and match fit. With 14 games proposed to be played over the 5 days of the tournament, it will be a long and enduring competition both physically and mentally. In the M30 division we look forward to meeting the touch powerhouses of England, France, and Ireland, and also the challenge of playing our neighbours Belgium, Switzerland, and Sweden who will be entering the M30 division for the first time.

To help us in our preparation we invited the Belgium M30 team to Luxembourg to play us in a friendly match and they gladly accepted. We played a 1hr match (3 x 20minute periods) which was a good test for our fitness.

The match was fast from the get go but we were up to the task early, keeping to our structures both and attack and defense, and turned over our subs well in order to keep our legs fresh. At the end of the 1^st period we had a 3-1 lead and were feeling confident. In the 2^nd period Belgium sharpened up and started to find their rhythm more in attack, tying the game up at 5-all after 40 minutes. In the final period fatigue began to set-in for us which affected our attack in both execution and decision making. Our lack of match fitness also affected us defensively so at the full-time whistle Belgium came out on top 9-7. We enjoyed the game though and took heart in the many positives attributes we displayed, but took on board the areas we know we need to improve.

With only 4 weeks to go until the Championships now, we are more than excited and look forward to finally getting onto the pitch and putting into practice all that learned, especially our main attack moves all named after Luxembourgish beer brands!  

We’d like to thank RCL for their support as a recognised sponsor in helping us get to Nottingham, and look forward to producing some results that the whole Luxembourg Touch family might be proud of!

You can follow our progress here:

https://www.internationaltouch.org/events/euros/2022/mens-30/

Cheers!

Luxembourg M30 Team

Well done to both our Mens Open and Mens 40s teams who recently returned from the European Touch Championships in Nottingham!

Check out the photo gallery added on our page and you can also see their results on the FIT website:

https://www.internationaltouch.org/events/euros/2018/

Men’s Open Report

Summary of day by day update from the Men’s Open lads who recently competed at the European Touch Championships in Nottingham from July 18-21st. Thanks to Coach Paul Sweetnam for the commentary 

Day two of four at the European Touch Rugby Champs in Nottingham. Heartbreak for Lux Men’s open as they lose 4-3 to Switzerland. Lux men’s over 40s beat Jersey and go into day three full of confidence, ice packs and strapping. Callum Trees, scores in a live streamed match to become , possibly, the youngest ever player to score in the European Men’s competition in the Luxembourg loss to Belgium 8-4, Jon Flynn is reffing despite painful injuries to all major pats of his body. Role on day three. Live stream on BBC website and YouTube.

Day three update at the Touch Rugby World Championships in Nottingham. The Luxembourg Men’s Open Team pulled off a surprise 8-5 win over Germany ( Ranked 3rd largest Car producer in the World). A massive shock briefly looked possible versus England when the score was 3-2… then England scored another 19!. The Men’s over 40s had a narrow 3-2 loss v Switzerland but produced a vintage performance to beat Portugal (11th largest wine producer in the world) 5-4. Jon Flynn, The World’s Largest Touch Rugby referee is getting stronger by the day and was last seen officiating the Ireland v Wales match. The Championships and the pain concludes tomorrow with matches versus Scotland and Italy. 10 matches in 4 days, well done boys your country is proud of you.

Final day update, Little Luxembourg were leading the world’s largest olive oil producer Italy in the both the men’s open and men’s 40s matches at half time only to lose in the dying seconds of each match. A lot of injuries on the final day including a broken wrist for our Kiwi Viking Sean “sharks” Howat. Great memories, friends for life made. 11 tries for boys 16 or younger in the men’s division. The future is bright.

Mens Over 40’s

On Day 1 the Mens over 40’s team had a tough start against Ireland, one of the strongest Touch nations and also lost to Belgium, but then beat Jersey 5-2 to record their first international victory in the Mens 40s division!

Day 2 was always going to be tough, playing France, Wales (reiging Champions) and England (favourites), all of whom had a significantly younger set of players.  The side stuck to their task and made each of these teams work for their victories, doing particularly well against the French.

Days 3 & 4 saw the M40s play their last 4 games, the results of which were their 2^nd tournament win over Portugal, and losing the other 3 games by only 1 point to Switzerland and Italy twice. In fact in their final play-off game against Italy at full-time the team had admirably held Italy to a 3-3 tie despite being down to only 10 players for the whole match. Whilst they tried their hardest they were unable to stop the Italians from scoring in the extra time drop-off and lost the game 4-3.

However a very proud performance overall by the M40s with over half the team being aged over 45 they gave it 100% against the other younger yet more experienced European teams, so placing 8^th out of 10 countries was a great result for our Luxembourg old timers 🙂