Page 91

YEAR IN REVIEW 2015 WORLD RUGBY 91Japan beating South Africa in Brighton was the biggest upset in RWC history and it rightly stole most of the headlines, but it wasn’t the only cause for satisfaction among those whose job it is to close the gap between the best international rugby teams in the world and the rest.Overall, RWC 2015 saw the most competitive performances from tier two teams with two rankings upsets and the lowest average winning margin between tier one and tier two teams (31 points v 37 points in 2011).World Rugby has been working hard and investing wisely in high performance within the next best group of teams, commonly known as high performance tier two unions. Of the 155 support personnel attached to those teams during RWC 2015, 106 of them were subsidised in part or in full by the global governing body. These included coaches, strength and conditioning trainers, medical/physio staff, team management and technical advisers, all of whom made a big difference in the build-up to and during the tournament and who would not have been there without World Rugby’s support.In addition to these, six other consultants were engaged directly by World Rugby and made available That Rugby World Cup 2015 was the most competitive to date is no secret – and it wasn’t an accident either. to the 10 tier two unions, in the areas of sports psychology, elite coaching, team management, medical and tactical coaching to augment what was already in place with individual teams.RWC 2007 final referee Alain Rolland worked with tier two teams, educating coaches and players on key refereeing elements, how to communicate effectively with match officials and how to concede fewer penalties and improve overall discipline. In all, World Rugby invested an average of £12.5m per year during the 2012-15 cycle in funding support for the high performance tier two unions, a figure that includes direct grants to unions, tournament preparation, special intervention funding and high WORKING HARD TO CLOSE THE GAPperformance tournaments such as the Pacific Nations Cup, Pacific Rugby Cup, Nations Cup, Tbilisi Cup, RWC warm-up fixtures and some age-grade tournaments.Also in 2015, World Rugby introduced a performance case process and contestable funding, where unions have to present plans on how they can contribute to the federation’s strategic goal of getting a tier two nation into the quarter-finals of RWC 2019. This funding model runs from 2016-19 and has the stated aim of making RWC 2019 in Japan even more competitive than RWC 2015 was in England.With World Rugby’s help, the emerging unions look set to continue to put pressure on the teams currently occupying the upper end of the world rankings.6 point reduction in the average winning margin between tier one and tier two teams from RWC 2011 to RWC 2015HIGH PERFORMANCE IN TIER TWO UNIONS£12.5M per year invested by World Rugby from 2012 to 2015106 support personnel subsidised during RWC 2015LEFTJohan Deysel goes over against New Zealand to score Namibia’s first try of RWC 2015