Peter Horne appointed Rugby Australia's new High Performance Director, David Nucifora joins as advisor

Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 3:00 AM
Nathan Williamson

Rugby Australia has announced the appointment of Peter Horne as the new Director of High Performance of Rugby.

It comes as RA confirms David Nucifora will return to Australia to serve as a High Performance advisor.

Horne will join RA in February after 11 years working with World Rugby, last serving as their Director of High Performance.

He will tasked with looking after all aspects of high performance, including the Wallabies, Wallaroos and Sevens along with the alignment of Super Rugby's high performance programs and pathways.

Horne has also served as the GM of UK club Saracens along with working in high performance in Samoa Rugby Union, Equestrian Federation of Australia, and Australian Canoeing.

“There are some really positive things going on in Australian Rugby,” said Horne. “Our Women’s Sevens team has won the first two rounds of the world series, and the men’s team showed great progress over those first two weekends – it’s obviously a huge year for them with the Olympics in July.

“The Wallaroos finished the year on a high, finishing third in World Rugby’s WXV competition – they have made great strides, and RA is strengthening that program with a new full-time head coach and dedicated HP manager. We are seeing growth in participation at the community level – especially with women and girls, which shows the extent of the opportunity in Women’s Rugby.

“We have an opportunity to purpose-build a new Wallabies program from scratch. There is universal agreement across the Super Rugby clubs that the high-performance systems and pathways need a major overhaul to ensure everyone is pushing in the same direction; to deliver sustainable success for our Wallabies, Wallaroos and Sevens teams.

“To have this sort of agreement and understanding on the path forward is exciting and I look forward to working with the Australian Rugby community.”

Along with this, former Brumbies coach and Wallabies hooker Nucifora will join RA as a High-Performance Advisor in March, with his involvement increasing after next year's Olympics.

Nucifora is credited as the architect behind Ireland's success in becoming the number one men's XV side in the world.

"As a proud Australian I'm excited by the opportunity to advise Australian Rugby as it embarks on what is a critical time for the game in our country,” said Nucifora.

“The necessary reform of the high-performance model is long overdue and my experience with Ireland gives me great hope for what can be achieved in the game in Australia.

"I look forward to working with Peter, Phil and the Australian Super Rugby Pacific clubs to help rugby in Australia realise its potential and I would like to thank the IRFU for their considered support in allowing me to assist Australian Rugby at this very important time.

“I still have much to achieve with Irish Rugby over the coming seven months before returning home to Australia in August.”

Horne's first major role will be scouting the new-look Wallabies coach after the departure of Eddie Jones.

The appointment comes after the announcement of Women’s High-Performance Manager Jamie Fernandez and Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp.

Horne excited about Wallabies reset, HP shake-up And Rugby's own-grown

Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 12:34 PM
Jim Tucker

Peter Horne, the High-Performance chief entrusted with reshaping Australian rugby, is confident that the sprint to set-up a new structure for the Wallabies can prove a positive one.

Horne’s clarity on what was important to Australian rugby created a strong first impression when he was unveiled in Sydney on Friday as the can-do figure for the code’s reset.

The new Director of High-Performance for Rugby Australia took the big questions up front.

The next Wallaby coach? “I’m totally open to whether it’s an international candidate or an Australian. It’s more around best fit and the right person for the role to get the success.”

Chasing rugby league stars? “My primary focus would be around our own pathways and what we are doing about the Under-18s, Under-20s and Under-23s to retain them for the long play.”

Centralisation, alignment and better synchronisation between RA and the Super Rugby clubs? “There’s a huge piece around just the engagement with our key stakeholders, our member unions. I’ve got a good opportunity to lead and bring people together because what we want to do needs to be really clear from inception.”

Like any new batsman at the crease, Horne took his share of short balls and half-volleys from the media with supporters of the code still raw from 2023’s failures under departed coach Eddie Jones.

Horne is the future but that’s not to say the harsh lessons of 2023’s multiple misfires aren’t to be examined thoroughly. RA Chief Executive Phil Waugh said the formal review of the World Cup failure was being drafted and would be in front of the RA board imminently.

Now the HP role has been filled, Waugh said the Wallabies coaching job would go to market next week for “expressions of interest.”

“Peter and I will talk about the right process and what is the appropriate selection panel. Ideally, we want an appointment in the first quarter of next year. We understand it’s a bit of a sprint but it’s important to get the process right and the right person,” Waugh said.

Horne will not formally step into his RA post until March but he has the green light from World Rugby to do two jobs until he finishes up as the governing body’s Director of High-Performance.

"There are going to be some long nights and potentially double-jobbing but I’m up for it,” Horne said.

The Sydneysider will be in charge of setting up a new structure for the Wallabies , now ninth in the world, as well overseeing the rising Wallaroos, Australia’s two Olympic medal-chasing sevens teams and pathway programs.

The attraction of the job was obvious to Horne.

“The key thing for me is the vision set by RA...bringing back successful teams for the Wallabies and all the other national teams, two home World Cups and ultimately a home Olympics in 2032,” Horne said.

“There’s almost a decade of pinnacle events that are going to be in Australia. I think I can bring some expertise and knowledge from a global sense and apply it to the strategy set by the board.”

Many in Australia will in the dark about Horne’s long-standing roles with World Rugby but they have prepared him. He has been involved in 28 different rugby countries.

“They are all part of our HP program (with World Rugby) around improving the competitiveness of the international game. Every system that each country has is slightly different so it’s not a cut-and-paste situation to apply to Australia,” Horne said.

“You have to edit ideas and information and apply to the context of the country.

“People will talk about Ireland and New Zealand as best-practice. You look at other nations and most are centralised. They haven’t copied (NZ or Ireland) but looked at their own countries to deliver results in a variety of aspects. Each is unique.

“You look at Argentina. They are very centralised and are razor-sharp around pathways and retention of talent.

“Other nations may have few resources, a very good playing pool, a geography which is conducive to bringing players together. Whether that’s Ireland, Samoa, the US or Uruguay, there are little pieces of the puzzle that are very relevant to the Australian game.

“There’s a lot of experience in Australia. It’s a matter of applying it and creating something that is bespoke for us that'll give us success.”

Waugh called Horne’s appointment “a really important appointment for Australian rugby for our next steps on the path forward.”

Horne has myriad tasks ahead but he has quickly identified the priorities before the Welsh tour mid-year to play the Wallabies.

“Getting a head coach, recruiting the right people in the right roles, getting centralised and aligned and explaining what that means and implementing the strategy that the board sets are probably the three or four most important things,” Horne said.

“We need to get these things established in the next three months. Time is ticking. We need to get the right team so we get prepared appropriately for July and the series against Wales.”

Horne said most head coaches come with an off-field team. Part of his job is to scrutinise what Australians are in the coaching system that would fit a Wallabies structure.

“How do we get the right people to create a better team?” Horne asked rhetorically.

“The building blocks are there. We can be successful and everyone has a part to play.”

Recruiting former Wallaby David Nucifora, Ireland rugby's High-Performance supremo, to be an advisor to RA is a coup because there was no certainty it could be pulled off.

Nucifora will start his role in August after his Irish commitments at the Paris Olympics.

“It’s very exciting to have David coming back. I think he certainly sees the ambition and strategic reset we are going on as appealing,” Waugh said.

“He’s keen to see Australia do well. It will be great to lean on his experience to achieve what we want. He’ll be helpful in driving the confidence of an aspiring (Wallaby) coach.”