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2022 Elite Men’s and Women’s NTS R1 preview
The 2022 club calendar taps off in Oxford on Saturday with the opening round of this year’s Elite Men’s and Women’s National Touch Series.
After a long winter of training this is the first opportunity for some of the best players in England to take on their friends and rivals from clubs across the country, with Oxford RFC once again playing host.
All of the pools show the potential for some seriously good entertainment, with Galaxy London, Raptors, NQ Rebels, London Scorpions, London Eagles and Cambridge all having teams in the Men’s and Women’s pools.
Nottingham and Thames Valley Vikings are also represented with Men’s and Women’s teams, with Hot Custard, Oxford and Canterbury just sending Men’s teams.
We welcome Old Wesley Touch from Dublin for their first England Touch tournament, and at the start of a European Touch Championships year this is an early opportunity to size up opposition from overseas!
2021’s Elite Men’s and Women’s NTS was curtailed somewhat due to biblical weather in Round 1, but Round 2 was one of the highlights of the year, with Galaxy London pipping London Scorpions in a classic to win the Men’s Cup, and NQ Rebels leading the way in the Women’s competition.
This year the Series has been brought forward to the spring and early summer, and Saturday’s forecast is for a very welcome sunny intervals and light winds.
The Men’s competition is divided up into a Cup and Bowl, with the former decided by morning round-robins in two pools of four teams each and afternoon knockouts, and the latter a five-team round-robin throughout the day.
The Women have been divided into four pools of three, with the teams being tiered into the afternoon Cup, Bowl and Plate depending on their finishing positions in the morning.
Live streaming will be via the England Touch YouTube channel and home page of this website, and for 2022 our friends at the RFL will be showing the main finals during next week on the OuRLeague app!
First tap off is at 10am, with the Women’s final match once again the showpiece at 5:15pm.
Men’s Pool A Galaxy London, Wigan Warriors, Raptors, NQ Rebels
Men’s Pool B London Scorpions, London Eagles, Cambridge, Hot Custard
Men’s Bowl Pool Thames Valley Vikings, Nottingham, Oxford, Canterbury, Old Wesley Touch
Women’s Pool A NQ Rebels, Cambridge, Nottingham
Women’s Pool B London Eagles, Galaxy London, Thames Valley Vikings
Women’s Pool C London Scorpions, Raptors, Old Wesley Touch
CLICK HERE for the full schedule!
