Andy Farrell’s new two-year contract extension until the end of the 2027 World Cup is not only good business by the IRFU, it is also a clear ‘hands-off’ to would-be suitors, notably his known admirers in the English RFU.
Explaining that it had been an internal IRFU decision without consulting his own anointed successor, David Humphreys, the union’s performance director David Nucifora said: “It’s obviously not just me that makes that decision. But other relevant people that needed to be consulted were. You don’t want to leave a coach like that out on the open market for too long, because I can tell you that people scramble a long way in advance to get a hold of quality coaches.”
Despite grumbling in some quarters at the time (but not now), there’s little doubt that Nucifora’s identification of Farrell as Joe Schmidt’s successor after serving under the latter as Irish defence coach was one of Nucifora’s smartest moves.
“We approached Andy very quickly in 2015 because I saw him as a guy who definitely had the ability to be a head coach and we’re all aware of Andy’s career as a player. The guy’s a winner, he finds an ability to get things done.
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“The way that he contributed as an assistant coach was outstanding and he’s actually gone on to become a better head coach than I ever thought he would be in such a short period of time when you look at what he’s been able to do in four years. I think that in another four years, he’s going to have evolved himself personally as a head coach as well and the way he looks at things.
“If he keeps improving himself at the rate that he’s done in the first four years, I think you’re going to have a coach that is going to be one of the all-time great coaches.”
The IRFU would be “ecstatic” according to Nucifora if, as expected, Farrell is appointed the next Lions head coach. Farrell would therefore have to take a sabbatical for some, or all of, the 2024-25 season before the 2025 expedition to Australia, as Warren Gatland did with Wales in 2013 and 2017.
“That’s still something I think can be discussed if this happens,” said Nucifora who also confirmed the union would now look to extend the contracts of Farrell’s assistant coaches, which expire at the end of 2024-25 season, except backs coach Mike Catt, who is stepping down after next summer’s two-Test tour to South Africa.
The union is in discussions with a successor and an announcement is to be made “within a few weeks”, but unsurprisingly speculation that Johnny Sexton might be in the mix after recently ending his long, stellar career has proved somewhat premature.
“I think for Johnny, at the moment, it’s just taking a bit of time to take a deep breath. It’s been a long career to decompress and work out his in his own head what he really wants to do.
“There’s obviously a lot of rugby intellect in there and you’d like to access it or use it in some way if you had the ability to do it, but he’s got to decide what it is that floats his boat over the next period of time. But if he ever chose to want to come back into coaching the Irish system would be mad to say no to him.”
A strong working relationship with the head coach is a key aspect to the role of a performance director in Nucifora’s view.
“All I ever try and do is work with the head coach. You’ve got to be on the same page, to understand what they need, to allow them to do their job to the best of their ability without having interference, whatever that might be. It can come in a number of different forms, so you’ve got to be able to give them air space to function.”
Nucifora will step aside after the Olympics, where his revival of the Irish Sevens programme has been rewarded with both the women’s and men’s team qualifying for Paris next summer. The union has reached an agreement with the provinces to have one player from each to potentially become part of the men’s Sevens squad, in “helping us towards winning an Olympic gold medal”.
Brought aboard in June 2014, Nucifora has “enjoyed the challenge” of the last decade. “We haven’t been able to tick that World Cup piece”, he admitted, but cited the landmark wins, “the evolution of our pathways” and the changed mindset in Irish rugby.
“That shift in mindset is something that’s super important for success going forward,” he said “We weren’t in that position 10 years ago when we hadn’t beaten New Zealand. Now, we’ve got players coming in and that’s what they expect.”
Meanwhile, the IRFU have reached a gender balance of 40 per cent on the union’s committee with the addition of three co-opted delegates: Maeve Carton, former chairwoman of the National Treasury Management Agency, Fiona Sweeney, a business and marketing consultant with previous roles in Kerry Group, Musgrave, Coca-Cola and Diageo, and Joanne Geary, managing director of MyHome.ie, who previously worked with Sherry FitzGerald and Savills.
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