England completes Autumn Series with Opens whitewash

England had another dominant Saturday in the Federation of International Touch Opens Autumn Series, with another clean sweep from the nine matches across the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed categories.

While the three teams maintained their perfect records from the first weekend, the matches were competitive, such as the 8-6 Mixed Open win against Scotland and the Men’s match against Ireland, which was only decided by a couple of tries for another 8-6 win clinched in the final few minutes.

The Women’s Open’s day was somewhat more comfortable, with three straightforward wins on the scoreboard.

On the Sunday Wales exacted some revenge, winning the Men’s 45s Test 6-5 and beating the Men’s 45s B 5-3.

“I'm really happy with the results that we had during the Autumn Series,” said Ben Powell, England Touch High Performance Director.

“We wanted to give our players the opportunity to get game time and reward the hard work which has been done in training over the past 18 months, especially having had a European Touch Championships ruled out during the pandemic.

“Going undefeated across all three Opens teams was very pleasing, especially given the results we've had against Wales and Scotland in the Mixed Open in the last two international competitions. It was also fantastic to have a number of teenagers not just play, but play very well at this level, and it bodes well for our future.

“The Men's Masters was very competitive with both wins and losses, and I know that our teams will put even more effort and focus into preparing for next year's Euros.

“I'd really like to thank Wales, Scotland and Ireland for the positive way they approached the Autumn Series and am looking forward to coming up against them in Nottingham next summer.”