8
ETA Annual Report
Development (Review)
2013 has been a year of finding our way, trying things
out and learning what works in order to achieve the
objective of growing Touch in England, getting more
players playing more regularly and developing their
skills so that they can feed into elite-level Touch.
Looking forward, we plan to structure our activity
around development through a strategy that
encourages and supports the whole England Touch
community in meeting our objective.
biggest ever UK trials event), there has been real
progress across England in broadening the appeal of
Touch.
The decision to introduce an Under 18s mixed
category in the Euros in 2014 has given the ETA the
opportunity to move quickly into promoting youth
Touch. There have been several areas of strength in
youth Touch across England, and this development
will allow the ETA to harness that level of interest.
The biggest change in relation to Touch expansion in
the last year has been the RFU entering into the Touch
market with their O2 Touch initiative, partnering with
ETA in order to assure the quality of the game that
their members are playing. There have also been
some highly successful development activities led
and delivered at a local and regional level. Alongside
a very busy year for elite Touch (two Touch
Nationals, the Home Nations competition and the
In order to try to structure the way that ETA can
encourage and support the development of Touch
across England, we have launched a player survey.
The results of this will feed into plans for next year
alongside capitalising on opportunities in the run up
to the Touch World Cup in 2015 (e.g.
Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Rugby World
Cup in England). Connecting elite Touch to the grass
roots will be a key part of that plan.
England Touch Association