Nucifora weighs up Wallabies post

By Bret Harris
May 02, 2008
<DIV id=storybody>DAVID Nucifora is poised to take the biggest gamble of his career by swapping his coaching clipboard for a desk job.
The coach has announced that he will not be with the Blues in the Super 14 next year, and will return to Australia - where it is the worst kept secret that he in Australian rugby that Nucifora will take up the role as Australian Rugby Union high performance manager.
Only time will tell if this is the right career path if he wants to fulfil his ambition of coaching Australia.
Nucifora, who guided the Brumbies to the 2004 Super 14 title before being driven out of Canberra by player power, had the Wallabies job in the bag until New Zealander Robbie Deans became a contender at the last minute.
Deans was always the ARU's preferred choice, but it was assumed he would get the New Zealand job.
Nucifora was considered as a Wallabies assistant coach, but it was deemed he would not be compatible in the secondary role.
ARU chief executive John O'Neill was keen for him to return to Australia to coach a Super 14 team, but he approached the coach to take on the high-performance job when Pat Howard quit in March.
There is little doubt that O'Neill regards Nucifora as a potential successor to Deans, but it is difficult to see how he will improve as a coach while working in an administrative position over the next four years.
The best way for a coach to improve his coaching skills is to coach.
New South Wales are understood to have approached Nucifora to replace Ewen McKenzie, but he had already committed himself to the high-performance job.
But the new role may be the safest course to the Wallabies job for Nucifora.
A lot can happen in four years. Look at McKenzie.
Two years ago, McKenzie had the Wallabies job if he wanted it but chose to stay with the Waratahs. After one bad season, the NSW Rugby Union chose not to extend McKenzie's contract and he will now take the Paris option, coaching French club Stade Francais.
At least in the HPU office Nucifora will not lose any games, not tarnish his reputation as a coach. And he will stay in close contact with O'Neill and the Wallabies.
Nucifora said in Brisbane that he had a "real interest" in joining the ARU, but he insisted he was leaving New Zealand for family reasons.
He said he had held preliminary talks with O'Neill and would also mull over "other options" which included being based in Brisbane.
"There is a lot about it (the ARU job) that is of real interest to me, but again I am not totally driven by my rugby career," Nucifora said.
"I have only had one or two conversations with John (O'Neill). There's nothing firm yet, no agreement in place."
Asked about the prospect of working with Deans, Nucifora said: "That is part of the offer that does interest me, to be able to work closely with Robbie.
"All of those things are of interest, but I will weigh them all up after I work out what suits us as a family.
"It's not about the job bringing me home, the decision to come home is a family one.
"While I have been in discussions with the Australian Rugby Union, I do not have a confirmed job to go to, nor do I intend to be coaching another Super 14 team.
"If I were to continue coaching at this level, I would have stayed with the Blues.
"There are some other options that I am looking at, things that I can do living in Brisbane. The choice will come down over the next couple of weeks."
Nucifora said his announcement would not distract him from the job at hand, which is leading the Blues to the Super 14 finals.
The Blues need to win their final three games and pick up bonus points, starting against Queensland at Suncorp Stadium, to stay alive in the finals hunt.