Nucifora confirmed in performance role by SRU

The Scottish Rugby Union has confirmed the appointment of David Nucifora to head up its performance department on a two-year deal, a move revealed by the Sunday Times last weekend.
The highly-regarded Australian is officially joining as a consultant, but will have full responsibility for “driving change in all areas” of the union’s development structure “to ensure we nurture Scotland’s best male and female talent” amid persistent criticism of the glaring deficiencies in the various player pathways.
Nucifora, who oversaw considerable success at all levels during ten years in a similar role in Ireland, will also lead the process of identifying a suitable permanent replacement for Jim Mallinder.
The SRU announced last December that the former Northampton Saints director of rugby was being let go as performance director, but after a lengthy recruitment process, Murrayfield were left unconvinced by the calibre of candidates for what is a highly specialist role.
Nucifora — who is due to start in Edinburgh at the end of October — could well end up mentoring the next man or woman in as they get to grips with the challenging landscape of the Scottish game.
The 62-year-old — who won two Wallaby caps at hooker and was part of the 1991 World Cup winning squad — will continue to act as a consultant to the Australian union, the SRU confident that there is no conflict of interest in such a state of affairs.
John McGuigan, the union’s chairman who is also closing in on a new chief executive, said: “I’m delighted David has agreed to join Scottish Rugby at a time of fundamental change in the sport. To ensure we can compete at the highest level we need someone of David’s experience to design and implement, at pace, a structure that supports our best talent.
“David’s success with the IRFU speaks for itself and we now look forward to his expertise being applied to the development of rugby in Scotland.”
Nucifora said: “I’m really looking forward to joining the team at Scottish Rugby. I’m well aware of the ambition Scotland has as a rugby nation and the desire to nurture talent to ensure we can compete at the highest level over the long term.
“To ensure this ambition can be realised we will design and implement a structure which supports high performance outcomes.”