Life goes in cycles. Flashback to the 2011 Touch World Cup. This event marked the birth of international and competitive touch for Luxembourg. A team of dads came to together to form a Luxembourg Mens Over 30s team, where they took on the challenge of playing on the biggest stage for touch at the World Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland. They came, they competed, they scored (but umm, not against Australia!). The men in this squad thoroughly enjoyed this experience, and they brought back to Luxembourg a hunger to grow touch in the country and continue to play it at a competitive level.
Fast forward to 2024 and once again a national Mens Over 30s (M30) squad is now preparing to play at Luxembourg’s second ever World Cup, from July 15th-21st in Nottingham, England. The M30 division will competed by 20 teams, and in total there are expected to be 180-200 teams and 4,000 players at this years World Cup. A momentous occasion.
Touch is no longer a newly discovered sport in the country. Despite some setbacks during the covid pandemic, player numbers are once again on the up with great growth in particular in junior touch, and some minor in-roads also being made in running touch sessions in a school environment. Furthermore, in mid-2023 a second touch club was finally born, RTCR in Dudelange. RTCR has already made leaps and bounds in terms of it’s local following, level of play, and touch-related activities. Touch Luxembourg is also pleased to see it already forging a great relationship with Luxembourg’s other longstanding touch club, RCL Touch (Lightning) based in Cessange.
With Nick Matenga, the head coach for Luxembourg at the 2023 European Championships returning to coach once again, Luxembourg M30 team trainings and preparation have been underway since November 2023. Nick who lives in Netherlands has committed to visiting Luxembourg to hold 6 national camp weekends for the team. Originally hailing from New Zealand, he brings with him a multitude of years of playing experience, as well as a wealth of coaching knowledge having played and coached with Touch England. He’s also introduced some unique “kiwi” lingo to the squad, which the lads are still finding hard to translate.
Two training camps have been held so far. Some interesting words encountered as part of the team’s prep include:
Commitment, focus, fitness, discipline, respect, flow, structure, sacrifice, hard work, family, dedication, knowledge, be calm, alcohol free, honesty, positivity, effort, Bronco, Rhiet, strength, mobility, look after your body and it will look after you, tidy, exemplary conduct, sweet as, wine (for the french in the team), do the basics well, spiders (?)
The squad has been having some fun, but most of all the men are focussed, committed and looking forward to the rest of this journey together.
The next training camp will be held at the end of March, followed by a visit to Brussels in April to play in the Belgium Men’s and Women’s International tournament which will give the squad some high level matches as part of their preparation. Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Ireland national teams are also expected to be there.
Stay tuned for an update on that, but in the meantime check out the photos below of what went down at the first 2 camps.
A big thank you to RTCR, RCL and the INS for providing the facilities for us to hold these sessions.
If you’d like to help sponsor Touch Luxembourg and the team for the 2024 World Cup please contact us at: official.lux@internationaltouch.org
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