NH club rugby
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Interview with David Nucifora, the Australian-born performance director with the IRFU. He outlines the detail and effect behind the IRFU's recent change in policy aimed at investing in the development of the domestic pathway and the curtailment of foreign player purchasing/contracts, including the much-derided project player growth that has occurred under the union's Player Succession Strategy from 2012.
Extending Ruan Pienaar’s stay didn’t make sense for Irish rugby, says Nucifora
Developing indigenous talent is IRFU’s way of competing with bigger and wealthier rivals
Extending Ruan Pienaar’s stay didn’t make sense for Irish rugby, says Nucifora
"Steady as she goes. The IRFU performance director David Nucifora maintains that the union’s drive to harness indigenous talent, with experienced rather than inexperienced coaching, remains their primary focus as they seek to compete against wealthier rivals. Hence, they are not for budging on their stance regarding Ruan Pienaar moving on from Ulster at the end of the season.Critical to all of this was Joe Schmidt agreeing to extend his stay as Ireland coach until the conclusion of the 2019 World Cup in Japan. Nucifora always believed, as well as hoped, Schmidt would stay, and the Ireland head coach could have taken longer to decide had he so wished. Now that he is staying, the union has ample time to plan for his succession.
“We’ve got a solid core of experienced coaches now and by the time they get to 2019 they’ll have done a good stint in international rugby and have a good base of experience, which is hugely important to us.
“We’ve bought ourselves some time now to sit back and watch how other people perform, so we’ve got that certainty of a really good, strong group of coaches in Irish rugby – both within the national set-up and within the provinces. Now, what we can do is sit back and start to see how people are going, and make decisions on the back of that, and not be rushed into things.”
Biggest challenge
Finances remain the biggest challenge facing the IRFU and Nucifora, be it wealthier rival unions or the English and French club game, which is backed both by benefactors and lucrative television deals.
“I think affordability of the game is always a challenge. There’s plenty of money in the game up in this part of the world and we’ve got some competitors with deep pockets. We have to continue to be smart in the way that we develop our players, keep our players and compete at a higher level. That’s probably the biggest challenge, to be honest.”
Central to that is developing players through the union’s pathway. “Developing your own is always a cheaper way of doing it. There’s no doubt about that. Investing in the pathways, we think, is a key way in trying to do that, and being able to introduce players earlier to the higher levels of the game is certainly cheaper than buying talent in.
“The other type of investment for us is our coaches,” added Nucifora, in a nod toward the presence of Rassie Erasmus at Munster and Stuart Lancaster at Leinster, in addition to Pat Lam and Les Kiss at Connacht and Ulster.
“We think that if we invest in our coaching that that’s going to help us achieve the quality of player that we’re looking to develop. There’s no doubt that if you introduce a young player who lacks experience and you put him in with an experienced coach, then that’s going to expedite the development, as opposed to putting him in with inexperienced coaches.”
“The other thing that we work hard on is our player welfare and how we look after the players because the players certainly appreciate us being able to to manage their careers so that they do get longevity and that they are able to perform at a higher level when required.”
Indigenous
Hence, Nucifora welcomed the arrival of Lancaster, the former England head coach, at Leinster, while the IRFU are also adamant it is time for Ulster to start developing indigenous scrumhalves, something they made clear to the province two years ago, even if none seem readily available to replace the hugely influential Pienaar.
“I think it was a fairly clear-cut situation, to be honest. Ruan has been a great servant for Ulster Rugby over seven years.
“Did we think it would be wise for him to stay nine years? No. I mean, that doesn’t fit in with any of our plans.
“In his role within Ulster Rugby, he’s done a great job, but it’s time to move on,” said Nucifora, citing the emergence of Joey Carbery when revealing that Leinster had sought an overseas replacement when Ian Madigan departed.
“When someone moves on, people think, ‘Gosh, we’ll never replace him, we’ll never find someone to fill that spot’. But there’s always someone who comes through once that opportunity presents itself. It may be uncomfortable for a short period of time but I’m sure that someone will put their hand up now that an opportunity presents itself.”
Not alone do Nucifora and the IRFU want Pienaar’s seven-year stay at Ulster to conclude, he strongly hinted that Ulster would not be allowed to emulate Leinster by signing a player akin to Jamison Gibson-Park, ie a “special project” who could become qualified to play for Ireland in three years.
Ineligible player
“When we have four half-backs and four hookers running out every week and we have one of those positions taken up by one ineligible player, that presents a number of challenges. When we have two, then that’s a real problem, isn’t it? And how are we going to create the opportunity for these players to get better? They need to be playing at a higher level.
“So the number of matches that Ruan played over a long period of time was significant. The number of games that the players beneath him played and started in was very few. We speak to the provinces about it. If we have a foreign player in the system, then part of it is: what is your succession plan? Who is coming through? Who have you earmarked? So it can’t just be about the here and now. It’s got to be about the future planning for that position as well.”
Players qualifying through the much discussed three-year residency rule, or special projects “are going to be considered like everyone else”, according to Nucifora, with the union not of a mind to actively seek a change in the rules.
“To be honest, if it is changed, it doesn’t really worry me. We’ll make do with whatever they are, so if it’s three, four, five, two, it doesn’t really matter,” he said, but added: “Certainly first and foremost in our mind is developing Irish talent that’s within the system.”
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@Pot-Hale Kinsella's work is regularly featured in the "Good Rugby Reads" thread.
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I don't know the player, but maybe some Ferners do. French club Tarbes has a sad message on its website that former Fiji (Warriors?) prop Isireli Temo, who signed with the club in August, has died. He was 30 years old. There is no further information (yet). 30 years, so young!
http://tpr65.com/news-120/news-de-lequipe-pro/item/1802-le-tpr-endeuille.html
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@Rocky-Rockbottom said in NH club rugby:
Also, Nonu defended like a crippled little blind girl who was lost at the seaside. During a tsunami. At night.
I think he's worked out that it doesn't pay to care too much.
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Pat Lam will be leaving Connacht at the end of the season. He has signed with Bristol.
http://www.bristolrugby.co.uk/news/pat-lam-appointed-as-head-coach/
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Regan King has returned to NZ for personal reasons; contract with Jersey Reds terminated
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@Stargazer said in NH club rugby:
Pat Lam will be leaving Connacht at the end of the season. He has signed with Bristol.
http://www.bristolrugby.co.uk/news/pat-lam-appointed-as-head-coach/
Balls!
€750k salary apparently! Irish Rugby cannot compete with those kind of numbers.
Bundee Aki not happy about the announcement after signing a new two-year deal with the province a couple of months ago.
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Just watching a bit of the Gloucester v La Rochelle match in the second tier Euro comp. Ricky Januarie at 9 for la Rochelle - fuck is he fat.
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Northampton v Leinster
Evenly matched contest until Hartley came on and promptly went off for a red card for swinging arm to the head.
Just can't stop himself.
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Only seen a short clip of the Hartley incident. I'm not sure he was aiming for the head (SOB was falling), but it looked at least reckless, and a red was inevitable. Ugly incident, but I sort of feel sorry for Hartley, if this signals that the exorcism has not been as permanent as it appeared to be until now. Eddie has George and Cowan Dickie (if uninjured?) for 6N, but if this incident heralds a return to Dylan v1.0 it would be a problem for Lions, although I didn't see him as Lions skipper as some pundits have touted.
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@Disgusted-of-TW I agree, it was a swinging arm tackle and he got what he deserved but it was only SOB falling that made it head high. Still a red in any event. If a lengthy ban ensues he can kiss his Lions chances goodbye, but in any event, like you I don't see him as skipper material, mainly because he is not nailed on first choice anyway. For the 6N we have fatty George, Tommy Taylor and the former mullet-boy Cowan-Dickie who must be coming back soon, so we should be OK hooker wise, but I think that Hartley has become something of a talisman for this England team particularly when the chips are down and we could miss his influence in this way.
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For me, Hartley's unlucky. His arm was originally swinging well below the line of SOB's shoulders. Looking at the commentary online, he's being judged by history here.
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@antipodean said in NH club rugby:
For me, Hartley's unlucky. His arm was originally swinging well below the line of SOB's shoulders. Looking at the commentary online, he's being judged by history here.
I agree. The problem was that he was swinging in the first place.
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Thing is that if that was anyone else the credit they would get for it being more reckless than deliberate would probably make the ban quite short.
Because he will get no credit at all for good previous and get extra for repeat offending any other mitigating circumstances will get wiped.
He simply has to be extra clean given his past record. He knows that and so, obviously, does Eddie. -
@antipodean said in NH club rugby:
For me, Hartley's unlucky. His arm was originally swinging well below the line of SOB's shoulders. Looking at the commentary online, he's being judged by history here.
Which is only right and proper.
He had shown himself to be a consistent thug in his rugby career to date, so when viewing any of his actions that is the only prism to use. The idea that he was swinging his arm to do anything less than cause maximum damage is laughable; that's just the type of rugby player he is.
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Irish teams on fire so far this weekend. Ulster faded a bit against clermont but hung on at the end, but so far Munster just smothering leicester.
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Just watching European Champions Rugby show on Sky.
Brought up Hartley incident and his 'charge' sheet.
A total of 54 weeks banned from the game for eye gouging, biting, punching, elbowing, headbutting, verbally abusing the referee.
Doesn't include the anticipated 8-12 week ban for last night's brain explosion
Question asked was has this blown his chance of Lions place / captaincy?
My question is how the f*** is he still allowed to play rugby?
Hartley is a dirty, dirty repeat offender. The game is better off without him -
Awful talent spotting by the blues to let Nathan Hughes go.
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Kurtley beale Motm on debut for wasps.
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@Billy-Tell Did you watch the game Billy? Beale was solid and had a couple of very good moments but how he got MoTM ahead of Launchbury I don't know.
