Berlin V Leipzig 09. April 2011

The touch season began in earnest on Saturday with a friendly run out against Leipzig.Many thanks to Leipzig for making the 200-km trek to the capital and bringing an impressive small army of players which allowed for a three-team tournament under sunny blue skies.

While Leipzig play a form of touch called OK Rugby, which involves limited kicking, their players quickly adapted to the touch rules with Berlin's trainee referees helping out any one new to the game.

There was plenty of action with Berlin being pushed all the way by both of Leipzig's teams and there was plenty to discuss over the barbecue and beers when the action was over.

Having won the German touch championships last season with a final victory over Munich in the final of Sepetmber's Heidelberg tournament, Berlin has a new-look team this season.

Germany players Lena Dietz and Svenja Gellert have both moved to Cologne and Vienna respectively, while Alex McOnie has returned to Australia and Jonathan Pengelly is on his way home to New Zealand.

Jordie Bitloch is away in Australia gaining valuable experience before going with the Germany squad to the World Cup in Edinburgh in June.

Mr Touch Deutschland Rob McGregor is sidelining playing to move more into a coaching role.

A host of new faces have arrived at the club with differing levels of experience and Berlin's new coaching team of Kai Lawrence and Marcus Wu are working hard with Berlin to host the Capital Cup on May 14.

Berlin will be defending their title, but both Frankfurt and Munich will present a strong challenge.

Germany representatives Niklas Grupe and Conny Hyb are hard at work with the World Cup now three months away.

Special mention needs to go to Conall Dodd for some tireless work behind the scenes to help keep the club together during so much changing of personnel.

Anyone interested in learning more about OK Rugby, and specifically the team in Leipzig, further information is available at their website here...

http://okrugby-leipzig.blogspot.com/

Article courtesy of Ryland James

Berlin, 10.04.2011