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HIGH PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS IN 2016Rugby World Cup 2015 was the most competitive to date with several rankings upsets and the lowest average winning margin between tier one and tier two teams (31 points v 37 points in 2011). World Rugby is working hard and investing wisely in high performance (HP) to ensure that this trend continues towards and beyond RWC 2019 in Japan.the three main Pacific Islands unions, Australia and New Zealand. In all, 2016 was an excellent year for Pacific Island rugby. The fourth annual Sport Science Sport Medicine (SSSM) Conference was held successfully in Fiji in February with 45 attendees from across the islands. It was also announced that a Fiji-based team would participate in Australia’s Buildcorp National Rugby Championship in 2017, with World Rugby financially underwriting participation. Perhaps the highlight of the year for the islands, however, was Fiji winning rugby sevens gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. It was the first Olympic medal of any kind for Fiji and the first gold for any of the Pacific Islands nations.Meanwhile, the Talent Optimisation Programme was redesigned in 2016 and was rebranded as the HP Optimisation Programme. Held in Stellenbosch in July, all tier two head coaches, lead strength and conditioning trainers and the top elite development referees attended the five-day intensive development programme.World Rugby subsidises, in part or in full, coaches, strength and conditioning trainers, medical/physio staff, team management and technical advisers for tier two unions, all of whom make a big difference in the build-up to and during major tournaments.In all, World Rugby’s investment in high performance is set to increase from £7.3 million in 2016 to £10 million in 2017. This includes increased investment in the HP programmes of the 10 tier two unions and of five emerging unions. This investment includes direct grants to unions, tournament preparation, special intervention funding and high performance tournaments.In 2016, World Rugby completed a review of its HP investment strategy with the Executive Committee approving increased financial support and new investment targeted for Germany and Brazil.As part of the governing body’s commitment to promoting and protecting rugby in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, the first Pacific Islands Working Group has been set up consisting of representatives from Other highlights of 2016 included:• World Rugby providing a bespoke HP investment system for Colombia, Kenya (women) and Brazil (men and women) to enable each union to prepare and participate at the Olympic Games to the best of their ability. This investment included technical coaching staff, HP consultants in strength and conditioning, medical and programme management, competition support and direct financial assistance• Georgia embarked on its first- ever tour of the Pacific Islands and returned undefeated• Samoa won the World Rugby U20 Trophy, earning promotion to the 2017 U20 Championship• There was a hugely successful November window for tier two – Romania and Tonga achieved a clean-sweep of November fixtures, including a tier one scalp (Tonga beat Italy)• The first annual HP workshop was held in 2016 in London with all tier one and two unions in attendance.ABOVE A bespoke high performance system helped Colombia and Kenya prepare for and perform at Rio 2016£2.7m increase in high performance funding for 2017YEAR IN REVIEW 2016 WORLD RUGBY 77