Triumph: Antoine Dupont with his Olympic gold medal
PICTURE: Getty Images

THE Paris Olympics should have rammed home an urgent reminder to the RFU that English rugby has to invest in an equivalent of the World Class Programme that has underpinned the significant increase in the number of Olympic medals – especially gold – at the last five games.
The World Class Programme was first introduced after the low point in Atlanta 1996, when GB won just one gold. It had an immediate impact by giving podium and potential podium athletes not only funding, but also an array of sp...