David Nucifora issues final message as Ireland high performance boss

David Nucifora has published a message on his final day working as the IRFU high performance boss in Ireland. The ex-Australian hooker arrived in Dublin in 2014 to take on a newly created position to transform the sport for the Irish and his exit on Thursday came after the conclusion of the Olympic rugby sevens in Paris earlier this week. 

The re-establishment of the sevens game was one of Nucifora’s biggest achievements on his watch, while he also helped to build the foundation for the Ireland men’s national team to enjoy a greater consistency in results with Joe Schmidt and now Andy Farrell at the helm.

Nucifora had coached at the Brumbies and the Blues in the noughties before moving on to become general manager at the Rugby Australia high performance unit in 2009. It was five years later when he was recruited by the IRFU. Now 62, he will now look to work as an independent advisor on high performance projects around the world. David Humphreys has taken over his IRFU role.    

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Posting to LinkedIn on Thursday, Nucifora wrote: “After 10 years my time at Irish Rugby as performance director today comes to an end. It has been a privilege to have been given the responsibility to have oversight for professional rugby in Ireland for this period. 

“It has been an exhilarating ride with considerable change during this period and one that I have thoroughly enjoyed. This has been brought about by the people in our high performance team who are exceptional at what they do and have driven change and continual improvement over this period to help Irish Rugby get to where it is today. 

“I thank you immensely for your contributions and on a professional and personal level a privilege to work with you all. In the coming weeks I will hopefully be able to communicate my next challenge as I seek to work globally on independent high performance advisory projects as they come to light. Thanks to everyone.”