Scottish Rugby has recruited respected Performance Director David Nucifora in an advisory capacity to provide a roadmap for its next decade of player development.
Join the RUCK’s WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.
David Nucifora was Performance Director for the IRFU over a ten-year period from June 2014, which saw Ireland’s men’s team top the World Rugby rankings and win four Six Nations Championships, including two Grand Slams. Ireland Women secured the Six Nations title in 2015 also. His tenure concluded with Ireland’s 7s teams qualifying for, and competing in, the 2024 Paris Olympics.
David’s remit will be to drive change in all areas of our development structure to ensure we nurture Scotland’s best male and female talent. David is contracted for two years during which time he will also advise the Scottish Rugby Limited board on the appointment of a permanent Performance Director.
Scottish Rugby Limited Chair, John McGuigan, 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.”
Speaking on his appointment, David 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.”
England centre Manu Tuilagi planning on swapping nations for the 2027 Rugby World Cup
Although some players are more likely to do so than others, here we discuss four players who could potentially switch.
#1. Manu Tuilagi to Samoa
In an extensive interview with The Daily Telegraph, the youngest Tuilagi revealed that while “England is very special to me, of course, but my heart and home is still Samoa.”
“I’d love to pull on the blue jersey one day,”
Manu, who is named after the Samoan national side, is the odd one out of his rugby-playing brothers, as Anitelea, Alesana, Henry and Freddie all opted to play for Manu Samoa rather than any of the European nations they spent time living in throughout their professional careers.
Tuilagi could be available for Samoa in 2027, Rugby World Cup though time isn’t on his side as he would be 35 by then.
