The Wharton weblog:

RUGBY LEAGUE: Sport England today announced its Whole Sport Plan allocation to sports for the period 2009-13 - and Rugby League was celebrating the grant of the third-highest award of the 46 sports funded, a total in excess of £29 million. The RFL's Plan, drafted with the support of Wharton's Neil Tunnicliffe, demonstrated elements which clearly appealed to Sport England, including the institution of non-traditional forms of the game such as tag and wheelchair rugby, and a significant increase in female participation.

IRFU: The Irish Rugby Football Union have commissioned Wharton's Neil Tunnicliffe to support their Domestic Game Committee in reshaping the way that the development of the game is delivered and monitored at provincial level. Neil will work with Domestic Game Manager Scott Walker over the next 12 months to deliver a new service-level agreement between the IRFU and the four provincial branches, and to construct a process through which the outputs of those SLAs can be monitored and measured. He will also support the DGC in reviewing the staffing structure which is operational on the ground in the provinces, making appropriate changes to that structure, and managing the process of change.

ARCHERY: Following British archers' disappointing performances in the Beijing Olympic Games, and the subsequent public criticisms made the archers themselves, Wharton's Neil Tunnicliffe has been commissioned to give independent guidance to the Archery GB post-Olympic debrief. Working with the organisation's performance staff, and in partnership with Performance1 Ltd's Jonathan Males, Neil will attempt to identify the key issues behind the Beijing performance, and to help forge a plan to address these. At the same time, the debrief will also look at the success of the Paralympic archers, and seek to identify what worked well for them, so that their levels of performance can be maintained and enhanced over the next four years.

UK SPORT: October 2008 will see the start of the fifth year of the UK Sport Fast-Track Practitioner Programme. This is a one-year accelerated development opportunity in sports science and medicine which equips young individuals with the skills, knowledge and experiences needed to operate as effective practitioners and to make a positive performance impact within high performance sport. Involved in the Programme from year one, Wharton's Sarah Rowell will again this year be one of the core tutor team working to help develop both the practitioners on the Programme and their designated day-to-day mentors.

SWIMMING: With the assistance of Wharton's Sarah Rowell, British Swimming has become the first national governing body to sign a sports science Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UK Sport and the three Home Country sport institutes (HCSIs) to try to ensure that it is successful at the 2012 Olympics. The purpose of the MoU is to set out and agree, between the English, Scottish, Welsh Institutes of Sport and UK Sport, the framework within which all of the key partners will operate to impact on the success of British Swimming during the build-up to the London Games.

The key element of the MoU is a sports science, sports medicine partnership designed to provide swimmers and coaches with a world-class service as a vital component of daily training and national team environments. The MoU will have a direct impact on British Swimming's intended network of Intensive Training Centres as well as performance clubs through the provision of a vibrant, challenging, performance orientated culture. It will be underpinned by the continuous development of skills for practitioners and coaches involved within British Swimming.

British Swimming's work in establishing an MoU will also benefit other governing bodies as UK Sport and the HCSIs look to implement agreements across other sports based on the collaborative efforts and good practice shown in relation to swimming.

VOLLEYBALL: The Great Britain men's indoor volleyball team made a significant breakthrough over the weekend of 27-29 June, when they recorded wins in the European League against both Portugal (3-1) and Greece (3-2) in Sheffield - while narrowly losing to Slovakia. These were the first wins for the team in its inaugural season in the league, and the status of the opposition (Greece ranked 24th in the world, and Portugal 39th) means that GB now has a reliable benchmark against which to operate in Europe.

The GB women's team also won over the weekend, a 3-0 victory over Sweden. These results demonstrate that the GB programme, whose management group is chaired by Wharton's Neil Tunnicliffe, is making impressive progress during its first year competing on the international circuit. Herein much credit is due to Programme Manager Kenny Barton, Head Coaches Harry Brokking (men) and Lorne Sawula (women), their assistants and support staff, and especially the players.