David Humphreys: 'We have to be creative where we go and find players whether that is from other sports'

TARGETING OTHER SPORTS: IRFU performance director David Humphreys believes IRFU need to be creative in searching for players and look to other sports. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

The IRFU has ruled out taking Ireland Test matches to Croke Park but it will not think twice about scouring the GAA and other sports for player talent in order to stay at the top of the world game, new Performance Director David Humphreys said.

Humphreys used his first opportunity in front of the media at Aviva Stadium since succeeding David Nucifora at the helm of Irish Rugby’s high-performance programme to promise further progress across for all national teams on his watch 10 years on from his Australian predecessor taking the reins as the first incumbent in the role.

Nucifora is seeing out his decade in post by overseeing the Ireland men’s and women’s Olympic Sevens medal bid at this August’s Paris Olympics before returning home to a consultancy with the Australian Rugby Union and a reunion with former Ireland head coach and new Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt. 

His successor, the former Ulster and Ireland fly-half who joined the IRFU three months ago from his role as director of performance operations at the England And Wales Cricket Board, wants to move away from what he sees as an over-reliance on Irish private schools supplying the bulk of rugby talent to the professional game.

In order to give Ireland coaches the best possible opportunity to field the strongest teams possible, Humphreys is seeking to improve a pathway system that identifies athletes in other codes now that the concept of project players from overseas becoming Irish Qualified (IQ) has effectively run dry through changes in World Rugby’s residency criteria.

Pointing to New Zealand-born, Ireland-qualified Test starting trio Bundee Aki, Jamison Gibson-Park, and James Lowe as the IRFU released its Strategic Plan for 2024-28, Humphreys said: “You only need to look at the Irish team that goes out there to see that the X factor comes from.

“The three-year residency is now gone, it is five years. I don’t think that you are going to see the same, not just in Ireland but across the world, who rely on it more than we do.

“Because of that challenge we have to have our own system here producing not just more but better players across the system. We have to be creative where we go and find players whether that is from other sports, which we will continue to do and try and do it better.” 

If and when that talent identification process starts to reap dividends, IRFU chief executive Kevin Potts does not believe Ireland’s Men’s XV will be following Leinster’s example and staging games at GAA headquarters. The province sold out the 80,000-plus Croke Park for their Champions Cup semi-final with Northampton Saints last month inside three hours while Munster have twice drawn 40,000-plus attendances for matches against touring sides at Cork GAA’s Pairc Ui Chaoimh in the past two seasons, crowds that exceed the capacities of either province’s regular big-match venues at Aviva Stadium and Thomond Park respectively.

"So Croke Park, they did sell out in three hours which was actually remarkable, but I think we were all taken by that,” Potts said. “My own family members were struggling to get tickets, they were gone, as we all know.

"Croke Park and our friends in the GAA are very friendly to Irish rugby and Leinster have access to it when the Aviva isn't available next year, Munster have access to Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the collaboration is fantastic.

"But if you're asking me, will there be a Test played there? No. The home of Irish rugby is the Aviva Stadium and that's where our Test games will be played.”