Touch is the area outside two touch-lines which define the sides of the playing area in a game of rugby football. As the touch-lines are not part of the playing area they are usually included as part of touch.
When a ball is "kicked into touch", it means that it has been kicked out of the playing area into the touch area. In American sports usage, the phrase "out of bounds" signifies the same as "touch."
Famous quotes containing the word touch:
“There is no country in which so absolute a homage is paid to wealth. In America there is a touch of shame when a man exhibits the evidences of large property, as if after all it needed apology. But the Englishman has pure pride in his wealth, and esteems it a final certificate. A coarse logic rules throughout all English souls: if you have merit, can you not show it by your good clothes and coach and horses?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)