Kellock joined Neil Graham, Scottish Rugby’s Head of Regional Pathways and Game Development, in presenting on the ‘National Talent Pathway’ to an audience of around 40 teachers, coaches, directors or rugby and administrators, including Scotland’s most capped male player Ross Ford, at Borders college in Galashiels on Monday night.

They spoke of how players will develop through six years of a pathway from 16 years old to 22, with the latter three in the Glasgow Warriors or Edinburgh Rugby academy, if they make it that far. Key is leaving the players with their schools and clubs, or academy, from pre-season to December, and then taking them into a more developed representative structure that builds intensity from their district into Edinburgh and Glasgow squads, and then hopefully Scotland squads that compete in world tournaments.

Coventry, Ealing Trailfinders and Wales Under-20s are some of the external clubs/teams signed up to be part of ensuring regular games as they progress through the system.

David Nucifora’s male performance pathway vision takes shape

After meeting local coaches, Nucifora told TOL: “ I think it’s really important that we as Scottish Rugby make the effort to get out to people, and meet personally the different stakeholders within the game to try and explain what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

“We’ve spoken a lot internally about improving the performance area in Scottish Rugby, but people who work in the performance space generally aren’t the best communicators at times, and I include myself in that.

“We try to be very good at what we do, and you get used to moving from one task to the next, to the next, and maybe not stopping to make sure we’re communicating that, so these events around the country are about a real focus on telling our story about what we do, why we do it, and sharing that with the different levels of stakeholder within the game so that they have a better understanding of the why.

“So, with the talent pathway we’ve been discussing in Gala tonight, for example, my role is Performance Director but you can never isolate performance from the grassroots and development part of the game. Performance exists because of participation, and you have to ensure that there’s levels of participation there that’s healthy. That enables a strong performance environment to be developed that pulls the talent out and works with it to make it capable of performing on the international stage.

“And we’re all tasked with that, you know, all the people that are in the room here tonight. We all have different roles, from coaching at clubs, schools, youth teams, whatever. None of us in there are any more important than anyone else. And I suppose that’s one of the things we want to make clear to people, that we can’t do this on our own. We have to do it with the help of a lot of other people.”

Maximising limited resources …

Nucifora’s name hails from his Italian family roots, but he is born and bred Australian. He came through the Brisbane schools ranks as a hooker, played for Queensland and the Wallabies, and was part of the World Cup-winning Australia squad of 1991. As a coach, he steered the Brumbies to the Super Rugby title in 2004 and also led the Blues, but since 2009 has held high performance roles with the Australian Rugby Union and then the IRFU for 10 years from June 2014 through to 2024.

During his tenure, Ireland became No1 in the world rankings and lifted successive Six Nations champions, making him a statement appointment when the SRU moved last year to try to bring some of the magic behind that rise to Scotland.

A key focus for Nucifora in the first year has been talent pathway, specifically how to address the logjam of players at academy level, and improving the number ready to step into pro and Test rugby. He provoked some controversy with the announcement earlier this year that the number of players in the academy system would be reduced. So, why has he made that move?

“We are trying to do something a little bit different from what’s been done before,” said Nucifora. “As we explained tonight, our numbers are tighter but the resources we’re putting into performance development are greater, so that we can produce a stronger system for the talent identified and how they are brought through.

“It is a very purposeful decision, it’s not about saving money. It’s a purposeful decision to reduce the numbers that we’ve brought in and increase spend on our resources, so the players that are in there have access to more individualised and high-quality resource, be it coaches, be it strength and conditioners, nutritionists, analysts … an umbrella of support around them like they’ve never had before in Scotland.

“We recognise the fact that it puts a lot more pressure on us and the people in the system to get it right, and this isn’t an exact science as everyone knows, but as we’ve pointed out tonight, the model is designed for ins and outs, so that people who don’t make the cut first up have other access points all the way along this pathway … which also means for people that don’t live up to the opportunity … well, they can be pushed out to allow someone who’s doing better to come in.

“Key to that is all the people in this room, for example, helping us in the Borders to identify that talent, at whatever stage they see it, and communicating with us to ensure we don’t miss players who possibly develop a bit later than others.

“When you’ve got a small pool of players, as we have in Scotland, you’ve got to try and create strong competitive environments, and that is going to be a real focus for us. Nothing comes easy. People are going to have to work for it and competition is at the heart of that. Performance without internal competition won’t get the level of performance that’s required. So, we’ve got to try and create that.”

… but also growing the base

One might argue that the greatest priority in Scottish rugby is addressing the decline in playing numbers all over the country, with far fewer rugby players emerging from childhood and so far fewer senior teams taking to the field each week now than was the case when professionalism arrived in the late 1990s.

Nucifora agreed, adding: “In this day and age all sports are stressed by competition for young people and what they want to do in their leisure time. I think one of the keys for rugby and for other sports is to create an environment that is applicable to what young people want to do.

“There were good points made in there tonight about ensuring the coaching we do is fun, and that games are a big part of it, because everyone wants to play games, right? And that is crucial.

“Rugby is a sport with great traditions, which is a lovely thing and should be valued. But we also have to be agile and adaptable to move with the times because younger people want different things and, you know, they may be different from what those of us who have been in this game for a long time might want, or what we think is important.

“So, we have to be creative if we want to capture people and their attention. So, we’ve got to think a bit differently as well and that’s a task for us all as coaches and rugby administrators – to think about how we do that.”

Like the north of the country, the Borders has a particular challenge as a rural area with many clubs competing for players from populations of 10,000 or less and secondary schools of only a few hundred.

So, where does he see the Borders and its talent fitting into the new system?

“Places like the Borders with its unique rugby history are really important,” he said. “Scotland can’t afford for any area to drop away or drop off.

David Nucifora joined Scottish Rugby as Performance Director on a two-year contract in August 2024. Image: © Craig Watson - www.craigwatson.co.uk

David Nucifora joined Scottish Rugby as Performance Director on a two-year contract in August 2024. Image: © Craig Watson – www.craigwatson.co.uk

David Nucifora joined Scottish Rugby as Performance Director on a two-year contract in August 2024. Image: © Craig Watson – www.craigwatson.co.uk

“I’m not a local, but I’m aware of the history of the Borders and its rugby, and I know a lot of the players that have come through and the quality that is still coming through from this area. It reminds me a little bit of Australia in the way that boys come out of the country areas and they’ve got to work real hard to be recognised, so in Australia too the game can always do better to go to them.

“And that’s why we’re here in Gala. A big part of this programme is what I said inside there, about our staff going into the more rural areas, and instead of asking the kids to come to us we go to them and into their play environments. And that goes for our clubs and communities right across Scotland, from Ayr and the Ayrshire coast down to Dumfries and Galloway, right up to Aberdeen and the Highlands.

“Hopefully, the benefit of that is two-fold. Yes, we’re supporting the identified individuals, but we’re also wanting to add value to the coaching, the clubs, the schools that we’re stepping into with coaches like Ross Ford, other specialists, the nutritionists etc. We’re also looking for other players all the time.

“I think being in someone else’s environment adds a lot of value and creates a connection. We’ve probably not been out there for a while in some areas, but that’s key to the success of this programme, building the relationships and trust.

“That’s hugely valuable to us is developing talent but also valuable to the game developing all across the country. And I think if we can build that trust and show people that we appreciate what they do and there’s value in what they do, you keep the Scottish game healthy.”