AUSTRALIA’S RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP campaign so far could scarcely have been more disastrous.
Back-to-back home tonkings by South Africa only emphasised the gap between the Wallabies and the world’s top sides and now the man tasked with closing it has upped and left for a competitor.
Rugby Australia insist that David Nucifora’s switch to Scotland is no surprise — “we were under no illusions that he was going to engage with other unions,” RA chief executive Phil Waugh told The Roar — and that he was hired back in December only on a “project” basis.
Nucifora had been working two days a week as an advisor for RA since detaching entirely from his 10-year gig as the IRFU’s high performance director. He was instrumental to the hiring of his old partner-in-crime Joe Schmidt back in January and, working alongside Peter Horne, it was presumed that he would help steer his native country into a crucial juncture in its rugby history with a Lions tour and a home World Cup on the horizon.
But less than 10 months after his recruitment by RA, Nucifora will again depart for Europe, this time for Scotland as ostensibly their high performance director.
While it’ll be a part-time gig officially, the Brisbane native will sign a two-year deal and fill the post vacated by Jim Mallinder back in December.
Beginning with this year’s November tests, Nucifora will spend parts of his year in Edinburgh where the buck will ultimately stop with him as it did in Dublin.
The 62-year-old will call the shots from grassroots to test rugby. Among his primary goals will be to improve Scotland’s development pathways, which have dried up to an extremely concerning extent.
He’ll also be partly responsible for recruiting his replacement in a couple of years’ time.
Nucifora’s arrival is an early coup for new SRU chairman John McGuigan. Ireland won four Six Nations under Nucifora’s watch — Scotland last won the title when it was still the Five Nations in 1999.
The union, meanwhile, still needs to add a chief executive to its new leadership regime following the departure of the long-serving Mark Dodson.
The SRU recently announced a ‘financial reset’, confirming that it would cut jobs in its efforts to bring the sport back into the black after recording a £10.5m deficit in the last financial year.
Nucifora will work closely with men’s senior head coach Gregor Townsend in pursuit of on-field success.
The former Wallaby hooker will hope to shift the mentality of Scottish rugby to the extent that he did with Ireland, who earned first ever test victories over New Zealand, a first test win in South Africa, and a series win in Australia during his tenure as high performance director.
There were also three U20 Grand Slams and a World Junior Championship final, and Nucifora’s new superiors will hope that he can set Scottish rugby back on a path towards becoming competitive at age-grade level.
The country’s player pathway is already in the midst of an overhaul to which Nucifora will now contribute.
The Scots believe the uncompromising Nucifora will set them up for the future in so far as is possible on a two-year, part-time deal.
Scotland will host Fiji, South Africa, Portugal and Nucifora’s native Australia in November before beginning their 2025 Six Nations campaign with a trip to Twickenham to face England.
