ETA Annual Report
17
Strategic priorities (for 2014)
Strategic planning is pivotal for effective administration of our sport and its development.
We are currently writing our plan, which will outline the foundation of our efforts, programs and focus over the
next few years. The plan will provide a clear direction for the sport, provide an outline of the activities we will
undertake and set some ambitious but achievable targets for our sport to obtain.
This plan will be the result of extensive consultation and collaboration between stakeholders at all levels in the
game. These people gave of their time, shared their thoughts and hopes for the future of the sport. Once
complete, readers of it will understand ETA’s strategic priorities for the next period and know the initiatives that
underpin the implementation of these strategic priorities.
Elite Strategic Priorities for 2014 and 2015
Future international competitions – the European
Touch Championships and the Touch World Cup – that
will occur in the next 18 months are the main focus for
the high-performance team.
For the Euros in 2014, from a high-performance
perspective, we aim to replicate and continue our
successes from the 2013 Home Nations and 2012
Euros tournaments, i.e. winning the Overall National
Touch Association Championship title. We also would
seek to ensure that our supremacy of the Open’s and
Master’s/Senior’s titles, achieved during Home
Nations, is maintained; and equally importantly, it is
unquestionably our ambition that all of our national
sides taste success in their respective divisions.
Ultimately however, the World Cup in Australia will be
the litmus test of how England’s elite programme and
players compare to the world’s best Touch-playing
nations: Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, the
geographical adjacency of the Australian east coast to
Pacific Touch-playing nations (e.g. Fiji, Tonga, Cook
Islands, Niue, Japan and Singapore), coupled with the
international growth of the sport, means that the
standard of Touch at the 2015 World Cup is
anticipated to the very high indeed. Despite this, we
believe that England Touch is strong enough to
complete for a medal (in one or more divisions) at the
2015 World Cup – although we are realistic that the
colour is not likely to be gold or silver.
In order for us to achieve our World Cup ambitions,
the high-performance team are focusing on two key
areas: player performance and player availability for
strategic squad selection.
In terms of player performance, aside from increasing
our elite player base through Touch Nationals and
greater exposure to qualified coaches, the highperformance team has taken inspiration from Olympicwinning rower Ben Hunt-Davis’ maxim: ‘will it make
the boat go faster?’ To this extent, and to compete
with the world’s best, we believe our success at the
World Cup will be enhanced by asking the following
questions: What makes us fitter? What make our skill
level higher? What makes our speed of execution
faster? What makes our teams more cohesive?
With regards to player availability and strategic squad
selection, the high-performance team with the support
of the Vice-President are about to release a player
expression of interest survey to the 2014 Euros
squads. It is hoped that this survey will benefit in two
ways: firstly, it will give elite players an 18-month
planning horizon with regards to fiscal and timerelated commitments (meaning less last minute
withdrawals); and secondly, it will provide data to the
high-performance team and coaches that will enable
us to strategically determine which sides to focus on
for the World Cup given our number of committed,
elite players.
England Touch Association