24 January 2024

The Countdown is On!

2024 will see three marquee tournaments on our Touch NZ calendar: the 2024 Bunnings National Youth Touch Championship, the 2024 Bunnings National Masters Touch Championship and the 2024 Bunnings National Touch Championship. 

This season, our Principal Partner and friends, Bunnings Warehouse, will join the Touch community to cheer from the sidelines at Touch tournaments nationwide with a Bunnings Fan Zone, packed with things to do and see.

We can't wait to see you at your selected tournament.

Click here for a highlight video.

The Touch Blacks 2024 World Cup campaign kicked off on Friday 11th to Sunday 13th January with a scorching camp!  

Athletes were put through testing, skill and technical sessions as well as match play with constraints and tactical conditions.  They were well looked after with our recovery protocols, amazing physios and catering teams. 

The athletes are looking good and it will be exciting to see how we shift performance up to our final camp in June.

Massive thank you must go out to Peter McIntyre, Riki Enosa and our own Pam Hyde for their tireless work.

Northern Quad Series Touch Tournament 2024

On Saturday 13th January, the annual Northern Quad Touch Series was held at Pakuranga United Rugby Club in Lloyd Elsmore Park. The tournament traditionally has provided a great warm-up platform for the Bunnings National Youth Touch Championship held in February each year.

With 11 fields in action, the teams and referees braved the heat that comes with mid Summer clear blue skies. Six provinces representing Auckland, North Harbour, Counties Manukau, Te Tai Tokerau, Thames Valley and Waikato made up the 89 teams spread across grades from U10’s to U18’s.

The referee team did an exceptional job covering multiple games throughout the day in the hot weather. Special thanks goes to Naomi Mani, Brett and Henri who ensured there were referees on each field. Massive thank you to the unofficial ‘Officials’ who jumped on to support games in the U10’s. True legends of the day with our AWHI values displayed from the outset.

The four food vendors onsite were very popular, especially the trusty BBQ facilitated by Auckland Touch. Thank you for your mahi!

We were so lucky to have the facilitation and running of the event supported by the 18 rangatahi who are currently part of the Community Connect Igniting Potential in Rangatahi (IPIR) programme. A huge mihi goes out to these young people who worked tirelessly throughout the day, supporting field management, officiating, promotion of the AWHI values, tournament control and emceeing, through to content gathering for Comms and Marketing. To find out more about the IPIR programme click here.

Click here for a highlight video.

Another highlight of the tournament which unarguably underpins what we are about, was presenting our younger grade players (U10, U12 and U14) with AWHI participation medals – recognition for them putting their hand up to take part in what for many of them, was their first tournament. Congratulations also goes to the winners of the AWHI awards, presented to those who signed and supported values of the AWHI promise.

Lastly, a massive thanks to Auckland Touch for their support as the host province for 2024.