‘Nothing less than a place in the semis will do in Japan,’ says Nucifora

Nothing less than a World Cup semi-final appearance in Japan later this year will constitute a good World Cup for Ireland, said a straight-talking David Nucifora, as the IRFU performance director threw down the gauntlet to Joe Schmidt and his squad yesterday.

With Ireland’s 2015 World Cup quarter-final exit to Argentina the major blot on Schmidt’s otherwise stellar Irish head coaching resumé, the New Zealander will not have heard anything yesterday from his immediate boss that has not already been outlined by the head coach himself.