Touch rugby in Manchester

What touch rugby is, in one paragraph

Touch is rugby with the tackling removed. Six a side, six touches to score, passes go backwards, and a defender stops you with a two-handed touch rather than putting you on the floor. There are no scrums, no lineouts and no contest on the ground, so the game is all running, passing and finding space. It is quick to learn, easy on the body, and about as far from a wet Sunday in the front row as a sport can get.

Where you can play it in Manchester

Manchester’s touch scene is small but genuinely welcoming, and it runs mostly on weeknight club sessions rather than formal leagues. We run ours at Hough End Leisure Centre on 480 Princess Road in south Manchester: floodlit grass pitches, free parking, every Monday of the year, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

That location is deliberate: it is roughly equidistant from Chorlton, Withington, Didsbury, Whalley Range and Fallowfield, a straightforward run from the city centre, and close enough to the M60 that people come in from Sale, Stretford and the Stockport side without it wrecking their evening.

Who plays touch rugby in Manchester

The honest answer for our club: people in their twenties, thirties and forties, roughly half of whom had never played rugby of any kind. Ex-players who miss the game. Footballers who wanted something different. People who moved to the city and needed to meet some. Runners who were bored of running. And a handful who have gone on to represent their countries. They train on the same pitch on the same night as everyone else.

We field women’s, men’s and mixed squads at tournaments around the UK, but none of that is a requirement. Plenty of members only ever play on Mondays, and that is completely fine.