Skip to content | Change text size
 

Schools touch championship held at Clayton campus

7 November 2007

Teams compete in the national touch tournament at the Clayton campus sportsgrounds.

Victorian teams may not have taken home the medals but local players made plenty of friends during the School Sports Australia Touch Tournament at Monash Clayton campus last month.

The competition was considered to be one of the most talented and skilled tournament in 11 years. There were 28 teams altogether and every state had at least two teams.

Melbourne Storm premiership player Greg Ingliss came down to watch some matches and happily posed for photos and signed autographs for young fans.

NSW won the under-15 boys final for the third year in a row and placed second behind Queensland in the under-15 girls. The results were the same in the under-12s divisions, where winners were decided the most wins of round robin matches.

On the local front, Victoria's U15 boys lost the plate final to Northern Territory in a very close encounter. They did extremely well considering the strength of the northern states in the sport, while the girls improved after each match and continued learning throughout the series.

Under-15 Victorian Girls captain Caitlin Cruse said the tournament was tough but very enjoyable.

"You can't imagine how good they are until you play, but it's great because you can meet new players and get a feel for other competitions. You can see the standard of where you want to be," she said.

Many players made new friends both from home and interstate. It was regular to see the orange of NT intermingled with the yellow of WA or the blue of NSW and great fun was had by them all. The last day was spent swapping uniforms and by the end of the day some Western Aussies were wearing ACT shorts and QLD hats to match their team jackets.

Next year's tournament will be held in Tasmania.