The request was considered at the elite funding body's January 2014 board meeting, when the main topic on the agenda was the annual investment review recommendations that have seen a number of Olympic and Paralympic sports stripped of their Rio 2016 cycle world-class performance funding.

The board concluded there was no need to revisit a decision reached in December 2012 to the effect that football, golf, tennis and rugby should be excluded from 2013-2017 world-class programmes (WCP) investment.

Minutes of the meeting record that, after due consideration, the UK Sport board agreed there was "no significant change of circumstance" to justify revisiting the 2012 decision, "the key points being the ability of these sports to prioritise their own significant resources and UK Sport responsibility to invest its finite resources in medal success".

There was no indication of how much the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was asking for, although the request was said to be "to support Rio preparation for the GB women's 7s teams (when formally formed) to enable the athletes to commit to centralised training".

Success at the World Sevens Series is one way a team representing Great Britain could take part in the Olympic rugby sevens competition, being held in the Deodoro Park in 2016 
©Getty Images



Contacted by insidethegames, the RFU - which is the governing body for rugby union in England, as opposed to Britain - said the application was submitted "on behalf of GB7s".

It said it was "continuing to support England women's 7s to perform at the World Sevens Series which is one route to Olympic qualification".

It was "currently progressing through business planning to identify budgets for all programmes for next season", with the England women's sevens programme "up for consideration through this process".

GB7s, it said, was "being established", represents all Home Countries and would be "responsible for the GB programme".

It said the eventual British squad "could genuinely be a GB squad made up of England, Scotland and Wales players.

"Ultimately it will all be down to selection in the end as to the make-up of the squad," the RFU said.

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