We Appreciate You All!

After a two-year hiatus, we are extremely happy to have been able to return for two days of awesome touch! Despite the weather, the atmosphere was incredible, and we loved seeing the Touch whanau, old and new, back for another successful tournament.

Thank you to our supporters – Whakatāne District Council, One Foundation Limited, Toi Ohomai, KBS Sportswear & Apparel, Iceman Whakatane, Whakatane High School, Underwood and Wilkins Motorcycles, and RSM New Zealand. We are forever grateful for any support that is contributed to our event, no matter how big or small. We would not be able to run Whakatane January Touch Tournament that we know and love without your contributions.

Thank you to our friends and family, in Aotearoa and abroad, for supporting our teams and referees from home. With the help of the team from Local Gecko Productions, we are so very happy to be able to include you in on this year’s tournament via our live-streaming links.

Thank you so much to the teams and their whanau for joining us this year. We are proud to have brought together such an amazing group of athletes, coaches, managers, and supporters to our little corner of the world, here in Whakatane.

We are also extremely grateful for the 75+ strong group of referees and referee supporters for their services to both our sport and our event.

We had some major changes this year – moving to an online-based system and introducing live-streaming – and we appreciate how quickly everyone adapted to these new processes.

And lastly, a huge thank you to the trustees and committee members of the Whakatane Touch Association Charitable Trust (WTACT) for organising this event, once again. A group of dedicated volunteers that have give so much of their time, resources, and knowledge to bring us the Whakatane January Touch Tournament for the past 35+ years.

Always remember, there will be no game without our players, our coaches, our managers, our referees, our spectators, or our volunteers.