As he prepares to end his 10-year stint as IRFU high-performance director, the Australian reflects on guiding changes to Irish structure and mentality even when that caused tensions
As he prepares to end his 10-year stint as IRFU performance director, the Australian reflects on guiding changes to Irish structures and mentality even when that caused tensionsis a Monty Python fan. There’s a scene in the Life of Brian where the Popular Front of Judea are having a secret meeting to decry Roman rule.
That’s clear visibility in terms of achievements. There are a few other trinkets too in terms of improved governance, new pathways, and restructuring within the age-grade and high-performance spheres. But apart from that, what has David Nucifora done for Irish rugby? He recalled: “I obviously knew Joe , he had moved into that role , taken on the team and won the ‘14 Six Nations Championship, which was great. I knew that the top end of the game was going to be well managed. It was a matter of looking at what’s under the bonnet.
He approached the newly minted role of performance manager without any preconceptions, had done some homework in the holding pattern before his start date but “after six months in the job I realised that the system was being constrained a little bit by how we invested or didn’t invest. “The whole methodology was to create competition sooner, for academy positions and for contracts in provinces. That model also allowed us to never be overly reliant on any one player at the top of the tree. We had to get to a position where we wouldn’t be held to ransom by any player wanting to leave.
“Compromise in high performance can bring you down, you are watering down something that if you want to be successful is going to stop you getting there. There are times in this job where I have been accused of different things, different behaviours but you have got to have that single-mindedness to say that’s where we are going. There will be things along the way that we have got to consider or adjust.
“People think it is just as easy as paying people to be professional. You need the right competitions, the right development programmes, appropriate ones. We are on the right track, the work that Gillian is doing in the women’s space is outstanding. But we are still fighting criticism around the development of the Celtic Challenge, for example.
“When we turned around and tried to do the same for more female athletes, we were criticised that we weren’t paying them enough. It has taken the men’s game 30 years to get to where it is now. The women’s game isn’t going to change overnight.” The IRFU’s strategic plan offered a blueprint for the development and evolution of Irish rugby. Some of the stated performance goals were attained but other markers, such as reaching a World Cup semi-final and winning multiple European Cups,
“For me, strategic plans are great, you aim to achieve everything that you put in them. They are a roadmap of how we are going to get there.”The vexed issue of central contracts and Non-Irish Qualified players for the provinces is another tinder box that flares up time and again, particularly Leinster’s dominance of the former. Nucifora said: “Just before I arrived, Leinster were arguing the same thing about Munster.
“They should be getting those sorts of numbers if everything is functioning well. There is nothing wrong with that.” While central contracting is here to stay, the union is currently examining some tweaks to ensure a fairer financial model. One of those rows involved the 2022 Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa where the provinces were unhappy, but Nucifora, supported by Ireland head coach Andy Farrell, overruled their misgivings. He wanted the provincial coaches to look at the bigger picture.
“Since 2016 in Chicago we have continued to beat New Zealand on a regular basis. The effect that it has had through the system, be it in our underage programmes, Sevens, in everything we do, young kids now coming into our programmes have the expectation that they can be the best in the world, that they can beat anyone.
“I got a real buzz out of the World Cup. Even though we didn’t get the results we wanted, seeing the support the team got was mind-blowing, that Irish rugby is in such a state that we had that many people spending their money to go to France to support that team. Irish rugby is unbelievably healthy. I am proud of that.”
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