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.”
