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:
“The whole fauna of human fantasies, their marine vegetation, drifts and luxuriates in the dimly lit zones of human activity, as though plaiting thick tresses of darkness. Here, too, appear the lighthouses of the mind, with their outward resemblance to less pure symbols. The gateway to mystery swings open at the touch of human weakness and we have entered the realms of darkness. One false step, one slurred syllable together reveal a man’s thoughts.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)