England Touch World Cup
Fri, 22 May 2015 02:00:00 BST
Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, Emma Knott, recently brought her skills to the England Touch World Cup in Australia. Working as part of a team of dedicated physiotherapists Emma shares her experience here:
My career with England Touch Association (ETA) started in 2011 when I was recruited to join the medical team covering the England squads at the Touch World Cup in Edinburgh. The team was made up of physiotherapists from all over the country, who had never worked together before or met the players.
Four years later and things have change dramatically in the England Touch medical set-up. There is a team of nine dedicated physiotherapists, who cover all the ETA events nationally and internationally. Three of us attended the World Cup and were assisted by another three Australian physiotherapists and several massage therapists all recruited prior to the tournament.
This World Cup was a very different experience, not only as it was being hosted in Australia, the birthplace of the sport, but also due to our increased preparedness over the last 18 months, our relationship with the players and coaches over the past four years, and the introduction of pre-habilitation and fitness programmes based on our research into injuries sustained in touch and the physical demands of the sport.
The final part of our World Cup journey took place in Sydney where we had our last “All squad” camp in preparation for the tournament ahead. Despite the jet lag, spirits in the camp were high and a series of ‘friendly’ games against some of the national and local teams were arranged as well as general training drills/skills and final team preparations. Most of the work for the medical team at this stage revolved around managing pre-existing injuries including fitness testing and managing any new injuries/niggles that occurred.
We then travelled to Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, where the World cup was taking place and settled into the England camp at Sawtell, a small town 10 minutes from the international stadium where the tournament was being held.
The morning of the first day of competition was glorious weather and the opening ceremony was welcomed with sunshine. The first games began in the afternoon; however the weather then took a turn for the worst, with some of the worst storms the area had seen for a decade. Despite the weather games went ahead and we had the experience of standing pitch-side to cover the England games in wellies and ponchos like we were back on home soil!
On day three of the competition all games were cancelled due to thunderstorms for the safety of all involved, however the games commenced again the next day, with a slightly altered game schedule and very muddy pitches! This didn’t dampen the determination of our players and luckily the sun came out for all the finals on the last day of the five-day tournament.
England took three bronze medals in the senior mixed, women’s 27s and men’s 40s divisions. Overall England finished joint third, a great achievement and our best result yet against countries where touch is a curriculum sport in schools.
The medical team were pleased to see that most of the injuries sustained were from contact mechanisms that we could not have accounted for, and it appeared that the increased fitness and previous management of injuries had been of benefit with fewer non-contact injuries than we have previously seen in other international tournaments. The main injuries we saw were fractures and after collecting injury data from the USA and some of the New Zealand teams, we are eager to look at any differences between our injuries and theirs.
It was a privilege to be able to support the England squad at another World Cup and we will now reflect on the experience, build on our knowledge and continue to support the development of touch in England and prepare for the next tournament in Europe, hopefully to retain our title of European champions. However I will ultimately be looking forward to the next World cup…bring on Malaysia 2019!
