Rugby Australia make key appointments in bid to find new Wallabies coach
The Wallabies form a huddle during their Rugby Championship Test with Argentina in Sydney.
Rugby Australia (RA) will start the search for a new Wallabies head coach after announcing the appointments of Peter Horne as the new director of high performance of rugby and David Nucifora as high performance advisor.
Horne is set to join RA in February after an 11-year period with World Rugby where he last served as their director of high performance.
He also worked as the general manager of Premiership outfit Saracens and has experience in high performance with the Samoa Rugby Union, Equestrian Federation of Australia, and Australian Canoeing.
Position covers all aspects of high performance
His position will cover all aspects of high performance, including the Wallabies, Wallaroos and Sevens as well as the alignment of Super Rugby’s high performance programmes and pathways.
“There are some really positive things going on in Australian Rugby,” Horne told RA’s official website. “Our Women’s Sevens team has won the first two rounds of the world series, and the men’s team showed great progress over those first two weekends – it’s obviously a huge year for them with the Olympics in July.
“The Wallaroos finished the year on a high, finishing third in World Rugby’s WXV competition – they have made great strides, and RA is strengthening that program with a new full-time head coach and dedicated HP manager. We are seeing growth in participation at the community level – especially with women and girls, which shows the extent of the opportunity in Women’s Rugby.
“We have an opportunity to purpose-build a new Wallabies program from scratch. There is universal agreement across the Super Rugby clubs that the high-performance systems and pathways need a major overhaul to ensure everyone is pushing in the same direction; to deliver sustainable success for our Wallabies, Wallaroos and Sevens teams.
“To have this sort of agreement and understanding on the path forward is exciting and I look forward to working with the Australian Rugby community.”
His first major task will be scouting for a new Wallabies coach after Eddie Jones’ resignation from the position after Australia’s disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign.
He will be joined by outgoing Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) high performance director Nucifora, who will commence his RA position in March and his involvement will increase after next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Helped Ireland gain success
Nucifora made a big contribution to Ireland’s success in which they became the number one ranked side side in the world earlier this year.
The 61-year-old previously worked as general manager of the Australian Rugby Union’s high-performance unit between 2008 and 2013.
Horne and Nucifora’s appointments come after Women’s high-Performance manager Jamie Fernandez and Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp were also brought into RA’s structures recently.
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