Touch Football (rugby League) - Glossary of Touch Terms

Glossary of Touch Terms

Touch shares many terms in common with rugby league (e.g. onside, offside, intercept). Below are some Touch-specific terms. The list is not meant to be comprehensive, and there are some regional variations.

• Acting Half, or just Half: the player who receives the ball following the rollball
• Dump or Quickie: a quick rollball to further attacking opportunities from the ensuing play. At levels above beginners these constitute a high proportion of all touches/roll balls.
• Fade or Drag: an angled run forwards and towards the wing/sideline in an attempt to drag the defenders sideways and potentially open up gaps on the open side.
• Link: The player position between the middles and the wings (the second player from the sideline).
• Mark: The location on the field where the attacking player is at the time of touch, or the position where a tap is awarded as a result of an infringement
• Middle: The player position in the middle of the players (the third player from either sideline).
• Open Side: the side of the ball carrier with the most number of players.
• Phantom: a defensive player claiming a touch when no touch had in fact been made. Frowned upon by the vast majority of players. A "yes/no" call is also regarded as a phantom. If spotted a phantom call results in a penalty, forced sub or sin bin.
• Re-Align: when an attacker moves back into an onside position (behind the ball) after passing or making a touch.
• Rollball: must be performed once a player in possession is touched by the opposition or after a turnover. The rollball is performed by placing the ball on the mark, and either rolling the ball backwards, or stepping forward over it. The ball is picked up by another player on the attacking team (see acting-half). Above a beginner level, players usually never actually roll the ball along the ground.
• Ruck: any attacking move intended to promote the ball down the field rather than specifically result in a touchdown.
• Scoop or Scoot: an attacking move following the dump, whereby a player runs from the half position in an attempt to get past the defensive line.
• Short Side: the side to the ball carrier with the least number of players.
• Snap: to beat (i.e. run past) an opponent by changing direction suddenly.
• Squeeze: a type of zone defence used to force attacking players to move the ball to the wings to gain and/or take advantage of an overlap (by which time the defence should have had time to re-position itself).
• Switch or Cut: an attacking move where the ball player passes to a receiver in the direction that the receiver has come from, as they run angled lines that cross over with the receiver running behind the ball carrier.
• Touch: the main defensive tactic in the game of Touch, similar to a tackle in some other codes of football. It forces the attacking team to stop and restart play (see rollball). A touch is performed by the defensive team on any part of the body or clothing of the current ball carrier for the attacking team, or the ball itself. At the moment of a touch, it is customary (but not mandatory) for the defensive player who is performing the touch to shout "Touch", which alerts both the attacking and defensive teams and the referees that the player has been touched.
• Wing: The player position nearest to each sideline.
• Wrap or Loop: a variation on the switch move involving where the ball carrier passes after the receiver as run behind them to the side that the receiver is running to.