Touch Rugby is a sport that consists of both mixed-age and mixed-gender teams. Being a non-contact form of rugby, it's a sport where parents can happily play alongside their kids during the summer months when the posts are away and cricket takes over. The most common rule variation being Touch, played under the auspices of the Federation of International Touch (FIT).

As something that started off as a bit of a Monday night fun and fitness session for Charlie and his brother, it wasn't long before their team was invited to take part in a summer tournament. The group entered a team of both adults and kids including Charlie's big sister Louisa.

Things sky-rocketed from there.

In 2022 Charlie was invited to training sessions at Essex Touch before being asked to attend Midland Touch Trials. Charlie was selected to compete in u15s Nationals. After Nationals he was then selected to attend the High Performance Training Camp for England Touch. After reducing the squad down, Charlie unfortunately missed out in the last cut but Louisa was selected for the Mixed u18's England squad to compete in the 2023 FIT Youth Atlantic cup.

At the start of the '23/'24 rugby season Charlie made the decision to move from South Woodham Rugby Club to Chelmsford Rugby Club and the cycle started again. Midland Trials, Nationals, High Performance Training Camp for England Touch and in July the teams were announced. The teams were made up of sixteen young athletes, ten boys and six girls, this time Charlie was on the reserve list for the u15's and his sister Louisa was in the mixed u18's. The FIT (Federation of International Touch) 2024 European Youth Touch Championship held in Vichy, France was due to take place on 16-19 August at Parc Omnisports Pierre-Coulon and with just 1 week to go, Charlie was called up.

Touch rugby is a completely self-funded amateur sport and every athlete has to pay their own way. These costs include kit, accommodation, entry fees, travel, medical, training costs etc. These costs are estimated to be circa £1500-£2000 per player. This can be quite expensive for some families especially if they have more than 1 child involved.

After day 1 the u15s had won 3 from 3 comfortably beating Lebanon, France and Cayman Islands with Charlie scoring in his opener against Lebanon. Day 2 saw the team winning all three of their games again scoring a massive 46 points and conceding just 3. Day 3 was the last league round and, because of their unbeaten records, the gold medal Final against France. A comfortable 9-4 win saw Charlie’s team scoop up the gold medal, he then demonstrated the real values of rugby by inviting the French team to join them in the Macarena with both teams dancing in a big circle around him.

One week later, and back in the UK, the champions traveled to Nottingham to compete once again in Nationals. Charlie was now playing in the Midland Tigers u17s boys team. The boys finished the weekend unbeaten and Charlie had another gold medal to add to his collection which is a wonderful way to finish the Touch season.

Charlie is a great success story in the sport and has a great future ahead of him but where does the sport go from here? Touch Rugby is played at a high level of intensity and speed and is massively competitive. It is a huge benefit for rugby union and league training zones to encourage fast hands, attacking space and quick feet. Being such an all-inclusive sport with mixed age and gender it becomes appealing to play by a much wider audience than other codes of rugby. When asked whether Touch Rugby could be represented in the Olympics Chris Simon, Chief Executive of England Touch said this “The aspiration is the Olympics and 2032 in Brisbane is an ideal target … If you look at the global reach, it has got huge potential.”