Joe Schmidt’s long-time ally departs for rival in another blow for Rugby Australia

David Nucifora is set to end his short stint with Rugby Australia (RA) after signing a two-year deal with the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU).

It is being widely reported that the former Ireland performance director, who worked with Joe Schmidt during his time there, will leave RA in November to take up a position back in the northern hemisphere.

Nucifora was hired as a consultant in December – at the same time that Peter Horne became Australia’s director of high performance – and has worked two days a week for the past few months.

Recently finished with Ireland

He initially combined it with the Ireland role, which he had held since 2014, but that officially ended following the Paris Olympics.

However, Rugby Australia have been unable to secure the 62-year-old’s services long-term with the SRU pouncing.

Scotland have been looking for a replacement for Jim Mallinder, who stepped down from his position as performance director in June.

“We’ve always been very open and transparent with any of our dialogue and we were under no illusions that he was going to engage with other unions,” RA chief executive Phil Waugh told The Roar. “There’s nothing surprising about him working with Scotland.

“We’ve got an agreement that he’ll finish up at the end of November. We’ve worked through the high performance alignment, national contracting model and pathways.”

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Nucifora worked alongside current Wallabies boss Schmidt for several years at Ireland and there was great hope when the two reunited down under, but he will now depart for Scotland.

Waugh is not too concerned, however, and is hopeful that Nucifora will complete his tasks by the end of his stint with RA.

‘Pretty important’ projects

“Obviously there’s a fair few balls in the air at the moment, but we need to get to a new national contracting model as soon as possible and then we need to ensure we’re capturing the best athletes we can through the pathway system. Those two projects are pretty important,” he said.

Nucifora wanted to expand his consultancy horizons, which put pay to keeping him long-term, but Rugby Australia have been pleased with the work Horne has been doing in his job.

“It’s a combination of both to be fair. His availability and appetite to consult, equally Peter Horne’s capability and what he brings to the role is a massive consideration,” Waugh added.

“I think we struck the right balance between what Pete’s delivering and the consultancy work David’s been doing.”

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