Just months after finishing up a rapid-fire consultancy role with Rugby Australia, David Nucifora – the former World Cup-winning Wallaby and high performance expert – will return Down Under to help lead the British and Irish Lions’ charge against his old team.
Nucifora, 63, is set to be announced as a key lieutenant for Lions’ coach Andy Farrell, according to British reports.
It comes after an eight-year relationship between the pair in Ireland, with Nucifora influential in bringing Farrell on board Joe Schmidt’s coaching team in 2016, before handing the Englishman the keys after the 2019 World Cup.
Nucifora might have stepped away from Ireland in recent months, but Farrell’s decision to bring on the maligned figure for the famous tour Down Under will set the cat amongst the pigeons given his rocky history with Australian Rugby.
But it is a savvy one given his deep understanding of Australian rugby and, indeed, Schmidt’s way of coaching, having been there every step along the journey during his six-year tenure with Ireland.
Andy Farrell (L) has brought on former Ireland high performance director David Nucifora (R) to oversee the British and Irish Lions campaign against Joe Schmidt’s (C) Wallabies. (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
The former hooker shocked many when his consultancy role with RA came to a halt midway through last year as he accepted a new role with the Scottish Rugby Union just weeks after formally finishing up with the Irish Rugby Football Union.
Many hoped that Nucifora would be a crucial piece of the missing puzzle to help RA get back on its feet after a great slide over the previous decade since joining the IRFU.
Indeed, as the Wallabies fell off a cliff, Ireland rose up the standings and despite not breaking their World Cup quarter-final hoodoo managed to win regularly and climb to world number one on a couple of occasions.
It came after several Six Nations crowns and an incredible series victory on New Zealand shores against the All Blacks in 2022.
Another key Lions’ appointment is reported to be strength and conditioning guru Aled Walters, who joined Ireland from England in the summer.
Felix Jones, the former England defence coach, and Paul O’Connell, Ireland’s forwards coach and a former Lions captain, are both potential candidates to join Farrell’s management team.
Andy Farrell will lead the Lions’ campaign Down Under against the Wallabies. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
The Lions’ 10-match itinerary begins against Argentina in Dublin on June 20, before they start their nine-match tour of Australia in Perth in late June. The tour will culminate in three Tests in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in July and August.
Wales boss Warren Gatland, who led the Lions on three successive tours from 2013 to 2021, told the Rugby Union Weekly podcast this week that he was surprised Farrell had left it late to build his backroom staff.
“He has left it a little bit later than I may have done,” Gatland said.
“I think you need some continuity, but he will also want maybe a fresh face, and there is no doubt he will go for some people involved in his own set-up.”
There’s been few answers to why Nucifora left RA in late August, just eight months after the governing body announced he would act as a consultant alongside new high performance director Peter Horne.
Although RA insists he finished up the “project” he was hired to do, mystery surrounds what he actually accomplished.
Indeed, the “high performance alignment, national contracting model and pathways” projects Nucifora was asked to consult for remain incomplete.
Some have suggested that Nucifora was left shaking his head when he discovered that RA’s high performance alignment project was far from complete, with only the Waratahs and Brumbies controlled by the governing body.
It came more than a decade after Nucifora previously left RA’s high performance team because of the game’s inability to move to a centralised model.
Nucifora is expected to thrive in his new role as Scotland’s boss, with the British side having two domestic teams – Edinburgh and Glasgow – to run.
