From Team Bath: The Touch Rugby World Cup is being staged in England for the first time this month and University of Bath student Louis Treays cannot wait to compete at a home championship.
Nearly 200 teams representing 40 nations will compete in the biggest-ever World Cup, taking place at the University of Nottingham from 15-21 July.
Treays, who graduates from his Sports Performance undergraduate degree this summer, is part of the England Open Men’s squad along with Bath alumni Dom Tripp, Will Serocold and Josh Henderson.
“I never thought I would get to play in a home World Cup,” said Treays, who helped England win gold at the 2023 European Championships and was recently presented with an Honorary Blue at the University of Bath’s annual Blues Awards for his contribution to touch rugby.
“It will be an incredible experience and I think we’ll be in with a good chance of medalling too. It will be the third-biggest sporting event the UK has hosted since 2010, in terms of participants, after the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games.
“Both my parents played touch, it is a very family-friendly sport, so I have been playing for many years and one of the reasons why I chose the University of Bath for my degree course was because I knew there was a strong touch society here.
“I really enjoy it, especially the social aspects. I was always quite a small rugby player, so as soon as I started playing touch I thought ‘this is the sport for me’ – it’s all about speed and agility rather than size and strength.
“Touch allows me to be competitive and gives me something to train towards but it’s one of those sports that is so accepting regardless of your age, experience and how serious you want to take it. There are so many opportunities at every different level.”
The University of Bath has a strong touch rugby heritage, enjoying success at home and internationally in recent years. Many male and female players have earned representative honours including Tripp, Serocold and Bronte Sykes, who have all played at the World Cup previously.
“Touch has just boomed as a sport,” said Treays, who has also represented Wales at international level before switching countries in 2022. “There are so many people playing it and so many leagues in every city.
“The sport continues to thrive here at Bath too. We’ve had more than 80 people turn up to our social sessions and we have several teams playing in BUCS competition.”
England Touch is a national governing body for Touch Rugby, organising competitions including the BUCS University Touch Championship. To find out more about playing for Bath Hawks in the UTC or general information about touch rugby at the University of Bath, please email su-touchrugby@bath.ac.uk.
For more on the sport:
Touch World Cup 2024, between July 15 and 21 in Nottingham, England, is the global game’s biggest tournament.
Held every four years, the World Cup brings together teams from across the globe for a truly international carnival of high quality sport.
The World Cup is reflecting the global growth of Touch by becoming bigger and more impressive with each edition. The 2024 edition will by far and away be the biggest ever, with c.190 teams representing 40-plus nations from every continent.
England will be represented in 13 categories, three more than 2019, namely the Mens Open, Womens Open, Mixed Open, Womens 27, Mens 30, Mixed 30, Womens 35, Mens 35, Womens 40, Mens 40, Men’s 45, Mens 50 and Mens 55.
For more on the competition see https://www.englandtouch.org.uk/touch-world-cup-2024/