Exciting Opens in prospect at 2023 Nationals

An exciting Opens competition is in prospect for this coming Bank Holiday weekend in Nottingham.

With the Nationals switching to the start of the domestic season rather than its previous place at the end, there has been no international tournaments or National Touch Series events to take energy out of the legs, or indeed provide any form guide to follow.

So there will be all eyes on the opening three time slots on Saturday as the Mixed, Mens and Womens teams take centre stage for their first matches of the weekend.

In the Mens and Womens competitions the South East have been the region to beat, providing both finalists on each of the last two years. Both of these matches have also provided the highlights of the weekend, not least in 2022 when they went down to the wire.

The Mens Open final was an all-time classic, when the Sharks and Taipans went toe-to-toe, sharing 21 tries in all. The critical scores came either side of the full-time hooter, when the Taipans first scored to tie things up at 10-all to send the game into extra time before scoring the only try of the additional two minutes to take home the title.

The Womens Open final may have lacked tries, but it was no less dramatic for it. The Sharks led 3-1 at the break, but the Taipans fought back in the second half to record three unanswered tries – all in the final six minutes – as their extra numbers began to tell.

Both of these competitions have six teams, with the Sharks and Taipans joined by the North West, Midlands, West and South West. Following a round-robin, the top two teams will go straight into the semi-finals, with the remaining four battling it out in a quarter final to join them.

The Mixed Open saw the Midland Tigers take home the title for the first time since 2015, as they went through the weekend undefeated, including a challenging final against the SE Taipans. Nevertheless, once they established a healthy lead there was only a small chance of being overhauled and they were worthy winners.

This year’s competition has seven teams, with the six regions in the other Opens tournaments joined by the North East. They will have a round-robin, with the top four teams going into the semi-finals and the remaining three having a play-off for the remaining places.

The action starts at 9:30am on Saturday, 9:00am on Sunday and 9:00am on Monday, with the Mixed Open category having the honour of bringing the whole Nationals to a close with the last final to be played at 4:30pm on Monday afternoon.

Watch all the action on the England Touch YouTube channel or this website’s home page!