David Nucifora aiming to lay foundations for Scotland to reach 'high ceiling'

HIGH CEILING: David Nucifora believes the raw material is in place for him to establish a grassroots structure that will allow Scotland to enjoy long-term prosperity.

David Nucifora believes the raw material is in place for him to establish a grassroots structure that will allow Scotland to enjoy long-term prosperity.

The 62-year-old Australian recently started work as Scottish Rugby's performance director, charged with "providing a roadmap for Scotland's next decade of player development".

Nucifora took on his new role on the back of 10 years as the Irish Rugby Football Union's high performance director, in which his ideas helped underpin the rise of the national team as one of the game's leading lights.

The former Australia hooker is "encouraged" by what he has seen at Murrayfield.

"The temptation of being able to help reshape something that I believe has a very high ceiling was attractive to me, hence I took up the opportunity to get involved," said Nucifora.

"The last five weeks I've been here on the ground and I've been really encouraged by what I've seen.

"I think there is lots of potential and a number of things that can be attacked very early on to try and make some reasonably quick improvements.

"I don't see it as being something that's going to materialise overnight. I certainly don't have a magic wand, but I do see that the structures and the raw material is here to work with so I look at it in a very positive light that we can achieve some really good things."

Nucifora's focus will be on trying to create a conveyor belt of talent for national team head coach Gregor Townsend.

"I think Gregor has done a really good job with the team," he said. "Coming from the other side, you know you're going to be in for a really difficult match when you play Scotland.

"But it's about being able to be consistent, and you've got to have a system underneath you that allows sustainable success.

"While you're working hard on keeping that national team doing well, you've got to be driving hard from underneath.

"I don't want to be referring back to Ireland too often, but the engine of the Irish system is the pathway. It's the thing that drives it.

"It does that because a lot of work was put into it over a long period of time to create a system that allowed quality to come through and created a competitive environment."

Scotland are widely deemed to have their best team in a generation, although many of their key men are in their late 20s or 30s.

"The challenge is trying to keep the pointier ends of the game as successful as possible while you're building something underneath that is solid," said Nucifora.

"So that's an ongoing challenge, how do you keep those teams being successful at the same time as you're constructing something underneath that hopefully is going to give you the longevity you're looking for?"

Nucifora has no issue with the number of players not born in Scotland currently representing the national team.

"You've got to operate within the regulations you've got in front of you," he said. "You've got to be creative.

"At the end of the day, when it really comes to the crunch, people care about winning. So you've got to find a way to meet that.

"In the perfect world, you will want more players coming out of the (Scottish) system but I think you have to squeeze every drop out of every area that you've got access to."