Australia and New Zealand share spoils at Asia Pacific Seniors event
14 Oct 2026 @ 9:00 UTC
Australia with seven golds and three silvers, and New Zealand with three golds and six silvers shared the spoils at the first Asia Pacific Seniors event in Utsunomiya, Japan last week.
52 teams and over 6,000 visitors across the four days of competition descended on the fantastic Tochigi Sports Park in Utsunomiya to witness a marvellous display of touch across 10 divisions. Following a memorable opening ceremony on Wednesday 7th October, teams battled it out across the pools in a round robin format, before the finals on Saturday 10th October.
Australia men set the tone for finals day in the first gold medal match – the Men’s 55, taking victory over their Tasman rivals 6-2, despite losing out twice in the round robin. The Touch Blacks drew level in the next final, the Men’s 50s, winning 4-2 after losing to the Emus in the pool. The hosts, Japan took bronze in both divisions, beating England by a single try in each.
The Emus dominated the remaining men’s divisions though, beating New Zealand in all four finals. They took the Men’s 45s 6-5 in a nail-biting finale, deep into drop-off; the Men’s 40s 5-3; the Men’s 35s 7-0 and the Men’s 30s ran away victors with an 11-3 one-sided encounter. The remaining bronze medals in the men’s divisions were shared between England (M35 and M45); the US (M40) and Japan (M30).
However, New Zealand came out on top in the women’s divisions winning both the W35s and W27s, in drop-offs. The 27s final was a fitting finale to the tournament with some fantastic touch on display from both sides.
Australia pipped New Zealand in the W40s final, 3-1, with England claiming the bronze after their drop off defeat to New Zealand in the qualifying final. England also claimed bronze in the W35s edging out Singapore 2-1, whilst hosts Japan claimed bronze in the W27s division.
The penultimate final - the Mixed 30s, saw Australia claim gold over the Philippines who went one better than the mixed open bronze in Mudgee with silver. Hong Kong China beat close rivals China 7-5 for the bronze medal.
FIT would like to thank all players, coaches, support staff, referees, volunteers, and staff from all participating NTOs and organisers Japan Touch Association.
Listed below are the medallists and finals referees.
For the full results and standings, please visit the event page here.
To access the event photos, including the finals presentations, please visit the event programme here. You will need to register a free account to access the photo pages.
Men’s 55
🥇 Australia
🥈 New Zealand
🥉 Japan
Referees of the Final: Fiona Quinn, Terri Alexander, Michael Genrich
Men’s 50
🥇 New Zealand
🥈 Australia
🥉 Japan
Referees of the Final: Craig Carmody, Giancarlo Leung, Ben Horner
Men’s 45
🥇 Australia
🥈 New Zealand
🥉 England
Referees of the Final: Amanda Sheeky, Rebecca Rogers, Justin Parsons
Women’s 40
🥇 Australia
🥈 New Zealand
🥉 England
Referees of the Final: Amanda Crowley, Linda Buchanan, John Frost
Men’s 40
🥇 Australia
🥈 New Zealand
🥉 USA
Referees of the Final: Michael Landsberg, Trevor Schelberg, Ben Harris
Women’s 35
🥇 New Zealand
🥈 Australia
🥉 England
Referees of the Final: Paul Tesoriero, Jason Whitney, Alisha Ruaiti
Men’s 35
🥇 Australia
🥈 New Zealand
🥉 England
Referees of the Final: Michael Littlefield, Rob McKay, Brett Kimpton
Men’s 30
🥇 Australia
🥈 New Zealand
🥉 Japan
Referees of the Final: Brett Freshwater, Tim Lucas, AJ Smith
Mixed 30
🥇 Australia
🥈 Philippines
🥉 Hong Kong China
Referees of the Final: Sam Piper, Shay Spyve, Paul Richardson
Women’s 27
🥇 New Zealand
🥈 Australia
🥉 Japan
Referees of the Final: John Clark, Brad Smith, Darren Couper
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