{"id":581659,"date":"2025-11-20T02:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T02:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581659\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T02:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T02:40:16","slug":"david-nucifora-promises-joined-up-pathway-from-grassroots-to-the-pro-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581659\/","title":{"rendered":"David Nucifora promises joined-up pathway from grassroots to the pro game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kellock joined Neil Graham, <\/strong>Scottish Rugby\u2019s Head of Regional Pathways and Game Development, in presenting on the \u2018National Talent Pathway\u2019 to an audience of around 40 teachers, coaches, directors or rugby and administrators, including Scotland\u2019s most capped male player Ross Ford,<\/strong>\u00a0at Borders college in Galashiels on Monday night.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\n

David Nucifora\u2019s male performance pathway vision takes shape<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

After meeting local coaches, Nucifora told TOL: \u201c\u200aI think it\u2019s 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\u2019re doing and why we\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken a lot internally about improving the performance area in Scottish Rugby, but people who work in the performance space generally aren\u2019t the best communicators at times, and I include myself in that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, with the talent pathway we\u2019ve 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\u2019s levels of participation there that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019re 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\u2019s one of the things we want to make clear to people, that we can\u2019t do this on our own. We have to do it with the help of a lot of other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maximising limited resources \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nucifora\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to do something a little bit different from what\u2019s been done before,\u201d said Nucifora. \u201cAs we explained tonight, our numbers are tighter but the resources we\u2019re putting into performance development are greater, so that we can produce a stronger system for the talent identified and how they are brought through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very purposeful decision, it\u2019s not about saving money. It\u2019s a purposeful decision to reduce the numbers that we\u2019ve 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 \u2026 an umbrella of support around them like they\u2019ve never had before in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019t an exact science as everyone knows, but as we\u2019ve pointed out tonight, the model is designed for ins and outs, so that people who don\u2019t make the cut first up have other access points all the way along this pathway \u2026 which also means for people that don\u2019t live up to the opportunity \u2026 well, they can be pushed out to allow someone who\u2019s doing better to come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cKey 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\u2019t miss players who possibly develop a bit later than others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a small pool of players, as we have in Scotland, you\u2019ve 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\u2019t get the level of performance that\u2019s required. So, we\u2019ve got to try and create that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026 but also growing the base<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Nucifora agreed, adding: \u201cIn 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we have to be creative if we want to capture people and their attention. So, we\u2019ve got to think a bit differently as well and that\u2019s a task for us all as coaches and rugby administrators \u2013 to think about how we do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

So, where does he see the Borders and its talent fitting into the new system?<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaces like the Borders with its unique rugby history are really important,\u201d he said. \u201cScotland can\u2019t afford for any area to drop away or drop off.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Nucifora joined Scottish Rugby as Performance Director on a two-year contract in August 2024. Image: \u00a9 Craig Watson \u2013 www.craigwatson.co.uk<\/p>\n

David Nucifora joined Scottish Rugby as Performance Director on a two-year contract in August 2024. Image: \u00a9 Craig Watson \u2013 www.craigwatson.co.uk<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a local, but I\u2019m 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\u2019ve got to work real hard to be recognised, so in Australia too the game can always do better to go to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s why we\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, the benefit of that is two-fold. Yes, we\u2019re supporting the identified individuals, but we\u2019re also wanting to add value to the coaching, the clubs, the schools that we\u2019re stepping into with coaches like Ross Ford, other specialists, the nutritionists etc. We\u2019re also looking for other players all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think being in someone else\u2019s environment adds a lot of value and creates a connection. We\u2019ve probably not been out there for a while in some areas, but that\u2019s key to the success of this programme, building the relationships and trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s 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\u2019s value in what they do, you keep the Scottish game healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kellock joined Neil Graham, Scottish Rugby\u2019s Head of Regional Pathways and Game Development, in presenting on the \u2018National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[85185,4151,712,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-581659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-divi","9":"tag-rugby","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115579717721473323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}