Tumeke Touch Rugby - US Touch Rugby

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Welcome To The Tumeke Touch Club Website

The sport of Touch began in the 1950's and 1960's as a training technique for Rugby League teams in Australia. The first official touch games were played in South Sydney in 1968 and a club was started that same year. The sport of Touch in New Zealand formed its first organized structure in 1975 with the initial competition being run in the Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Touch within New Zealand became a recognized sport with the establishment of Touch New Zealand in May 1986.

Analysis of the sport has highlighted that people play Touch at social and competitive levels from age 5 to 55 plus. It spans across all areas of the community and is not limited by culture, ethnic background or financial status. Touch is recognized, as a sport that is easy to coach, is non-contact, can be readily adapted to any environment, is cheap to play and acknowledges male and females as equals in their ability to compete against one another.

With the relative ease of coaching and organizing Touch, nationally, a large number of schools have incorporated Touch in New Zealand as part of their physical education curriculum. Touch NZ is working closely with a number of schools with player and coaching development.

Touch in the US is still in infant stages. Houston Touch has been operating for over 10 years and have a regular rivalry with Dallas Touch. San Diego and Portland are the current powerhouses of US Touch. Both clubs host an invitational touch tournament once a year. Along with the US Nationals and the US Sevens invitational, these tournaments act as the basis for the Touch movement in the US.

Tumeke Touch has been around for almost 2 years now. Jason and Nathan Murray moved from New Zealand in 1999 and found themselves running with the San Diego club 4 years later. After moving to Portland they established themselves in the Touch community and were picked for the US National Team. It was then that they decided to put their vision for Touch in the US into fruition. They began running with a small group of new comers and formed what is today TUMEKE TOUCH.

A change in scenery brought Jason to Phoenix, Arizona, where in a short period of time, he's created a Tumeke Touch movement with keen learners to the game of Touch in another part of the country. Nathan, with the established veterans in Portland continues to be the stronghold of the club. However, with visions of moving into Southern California, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii, Tumeke Touch is poised to make a run at mirroring their recent success and build the game that they love into a Nationally recognized sport.

After competing in several competitions, the Tumeke Mixed team took out the San Diego invitational early in 2008. As Champions, they returned to Portland to push further into building Tumeke Touch into a Nationally recognized power. Tumeke took 2 teams to the 2008 Nationals in Houston, Texas. The Men's team finished second to Portland and the Mixed team were third. Tumeke will host the 2009 National Championships in Phoenix, Arizona in November 2009.

Tumeke Touch entered 5 teams into the 2009 US Touch Nationals in Phoenix, Arizona. There were 3 Tumeke mixed teams and 2 men's teams. It was a great success as 4 of the total semi finalists were from Tumeke. Portland and California were in the mixed semi's and Arizona and California were in the men's semi's. Tumeke California made it to the final with a win against Florida in a drop off. They went up against powerhouse Galaxy of San Diego and came up short. Tumeke Arizona were able to see off Tumeke California in one men's semi to setup a repeat of the 2008 men's final with the mighty Portland Hunters. Tumeke was able to use the home field advantage to come away with a 4-3 win and the first National Championship for Tumeke Touch.

Tumeke is looking to represent again in 2010 when the National Championships move to Orlando, Florida. The tournament has been set for the 24th and 25th of September at the Disney Wide World of Sports facility on the campus of Disney World in Orlando, Florida.