Touch: Talent tapped for academy

Some of Te Tai Tokerau's top talent has been invited to this year's national touch rugby academy.

Players were identified with having the talent and potential to represent New Zealand during the Junior National Touch Championship at Tahunanui Park in Nelson.

To help the players realise their potential they were invited to attend the Touch NZ Elite Academy at Rotorua Boys' High School from September 29 to October 2.

However, five Te Tai Tokerau U15 mixed players received their invitations via a different route. They will attend even though their team didn't go to the Nelson tournament.

The team won Northern Inter-provincial Series U15s mixed grade in Rotorua and impressed the selectors.

Lee, Jade and Paul Turner, Jayd Kapa, Ioane Job as well as their U15s Te Tai Tokerau coach Joe Rau were all invited.

"The kids will definitely learn some good stuff at the elite camp and hopefully share their knowledge with the people back here in the North," Rau said.

"It's awesome for them but also opens the door for a lot of our future touch players as Te Tai Tokerau Touch has been identified as an untapped area of talent."

The aim of the Academy is to bring like-minded and skilled players with potential into the elite touch environment in group coaching sessions where they experience the Touch Black training programmes and mentoring from Elite coaches. Rau said he was keen to learn from the national coaches to help grow the game in the north.

"There is a lot of raw talent up here but if we can get our training ethics right and coaches a little more up-skilled then I reckon we will definitely have a lot of future NZ Touch players coming through and be competitive at a senior level at major tournaments," he said.

"With summer just around the corner I have already started planning for some major tournaments as well as running and growing our Galaxy Touch Module on Tuesday nights at the Otaika Sports ground.