The touch season will kick off in early February and the categories this year will be, in the open division, men and women and then in the mixed division, opens, 18s and masters.

Open men and women are being played on Mondays,  and mixed being played on Wednesdays.

Organisers are encouraging masters mixed teams to also register if interested.

Games will now be played at the National Stadium going forward.

Cook Islands Touch president Julieanne Westrupp said, to get the hype going for next week, “We are inviting all touch players to rock up to the stadium for a friendly muster, dust off the old touch shoes and have a run especially after the festive season.”

Following warm ups on Monday, the first game is set to kick off at 5pm today.

“Pending on numbers we hope to run mixed (open and 18s), men and women.

“If a certain team wants to have a blow out together and use this time to have a training game, we can also arrange that too.”

She said CIT is now also focusing on training sessions for the youth

“There is a Pacific Youth Cup Games happening in May of this year in Brisbane and we are wanting to send a team.”

The turn out to training on Monday “was ok but more would have been better”, she added.  

“We are having another run today at the stadium at 5pm.

“If we get interest, there will be a trialling squad, this will definitely be a stepping stone towards the Pacific Games.”

The Youth Pacific Games are set to be held between May 11 and 13 in Brisbane.

“This year we are asking 18s players to play in your age group and not in the open so we are able to identify talent in this age group as we have the Pacific Youth Cup tournament happening in May of this year.”

“Should you be interested in playing in this tournament, we encourage you to find an U18s team to have that opportunity in being selected to trial.

Westrupp said they will also use the season to identify possible trialists to play at the upcoming Pacific Games to be held in November in the Solomon Islands.