About
A touch rugby club that started in a pub
Manchester Foxes were founded in 2020 by a group of friends who, in a moment of some confidence, entered nearly every touch tournament in the country. It went better than it had any right to.
From a daft idea to a proper club
The plan, such as it was, involved a pub and an entry form. The group signed up for tournaments up and down the UK on the basis that they would work the rest out later, and then spent a season doing exactly that.
What actually happened was that the sport stuck, and the group grew. Friends brought friends. People who had never played turned up and stayed. Four years on there are more than 50 members, three squads, a weekly session at Hough End Leisure Centre and a group chat that has never once been quiet.
Along the way some of our players have pulled on international shirts: Foxes represented England, Malaysia and Scotland at the 2024 Touch World Cup in Nottingham. They still train on the same pitch on the same Monday night as the person who turned up for the first time last week, which is more or less the whole idea.
We are affiliated with England Touch, which is what gives our players a route into regional and national squads if they want one. Most do not, and that has never mattered.
What we are about
Four things we have never budged on
Everyone gets a game
Rolling subs, mixed teams and no team sheet. If you turn up, you play, whether it is your first session or your three hundredth.
Beginners are not a burden
They are how the club grew. Every squad we have entered at a tournament has had people in it who could not pass a rugby ball two years earlier.
Ambition, without the elbows
We take competition seriously and we have players who have gone a long way with it. None of that gets in the way of somebody wanting a run around on a Monday.
The club is the point
The rugby is the excuse to get fifty people who would not otherwise have met into the same field every week. That has always been the actual product.
The club
Four years, fifty-odd players, one very busy group chat
We started in 2020 with a daft plan to enter every touch tournament we could find. Some of that group have since pulled on international shirts, and Monday nights are still open to anyone who fancies a run around.
- Founded
2020
Founded
A pub idea that turned into a proper club.
- Members
50+
Members
And a group chat that never stops.
- Squads
3
Squads
Women's, men's and mixed.
- Touch World Cup
2024
Touch World Cup
Foxes represented England, Malaysia and Scotland in Nottingham.
See what a Monday actually looks like
Match clips, tournament weekends, post-session pints and a fair amount of nonsense. It is all on Instagram, and it is the quickest way to work out whether we are your sort of people.
Follow @manchesterfoxes
Where we play
Home is Hough End
One venue, one night, all year: Hough End Leisure Centre, 480 Princess Road, Manchester M20 1HD.
It is a south Manchester base that works for players across the city and over towards Stockport, with floodlights that keep the session running through winter and free parking that keeps it viable on a weeknight. There is more detail on getting to Hough End.
Want in?
Message us, tell us you fancy a go, and turn up on Monday. First session is free and you will not be the only new face there.