David Humphreys set to succeed Nucifora as IRFU’s high performance director

David Humphreys has emerged as the front runner to succeed David Nucifora as the IRFU’s high performance director next year. While Rassie Erasmus, Joe Schmidt and Conor O’Shea have previously been linked with the upcoming vacancy, The Irish Times understands Humphreys is the Union’s preferred choice to assume the high-powered role.

The former Irish outhalf has built up a wealth of experience since his retirement from playing, with separate stints as director of rugby at Ulster and Gloucester, and he is currently the director of cricket at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), a role Humphreys took up earlier this year. He previously sat on Cricket Ireland’s high performance committee.

Luring him from the England role would thus represent quite a coup for the IRFU and would also demonstrate the appeal of the position that Nucifora has occupied for almost a decade.

Nucifora was the first person to fill the position of high performance director when it was created in 2014, and he informed the Irish media at the end of 2022 that he would be stepping down at some point in 2024.

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“My contract is until the end of the World Cup, and we’re talking about extending that for a little bit further. That would probably involve looking at some type of transition in that period,” he explained. “I think at some point, by the middle of 2024, I’ll have been here 10 years, and I think that’s a pretty good stretch.”

The expectation is that Nucifora will see out his tenure by attending the Rugby Sevens at the summer Olympic games in Paris at the end of July. As well as being the key decision maker in the professional game for the last decade, the women’s and men’s Sevens programme were relaunched during Nucifora’s tenure. The men’s team qualified for their maiden Olympics at the Tokyo Games, and both teams have performed brilliantly to qualify for Paris 2024.

A gifted and prolific outhalf as a player, Humphreys was a talismanic figure in Ulster’s 1998-99 European Cup and 2005-06 Celtic League triumphs and he remains the province’s all-time record points scorer with 1,585. Humphreys won 72 caps for Ireland and remains his country’s third highest points scorer of all time behind Johnny Sexton and Ronan O’Gara.

In his five years as Ulster’s director of rugby, Humphreys was credited with signing South African and New Zealand stars Ruan Pienaar, Johann Muller and John Afoa, as well as persuading Tommy Bowe and Roger Wilson to return to their native province. Ulster reached the final of the Heineken Cup in 2012 and the Magners League in 2013 before Humphreys moved to Gloucester a year later.

After six years as director of rugby with the English side, Humphreys had a consulting stint with Georgian Rugby before taking up the position with Cricket Ireland for two years. His role as director of cricket at the ECB saw him hold responsibility for central contracts and touring operations for the men’s and women’s teams, including security and logistical operations.

The IRFU are expected to make an announcement confirming the identity of their next high performance director within the next fortnight.