Ireland are set to appoint David Nucifora as their high performance unit manager in the new year. Nucifora, who was sacked from a similar role with the Australian Rugby Union in December, worked with Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt. The former Leinster boss worked as Nucifora's assistant at the Blues during the 2006 Super Rugby season. The former Queensland and Australia hooker coached the Brumbies to the Super Rugby title in 2004 before he joined the Blues in 2005 as a technical adviser and high-performance manager, and he was appointed head coach the following year. Nucifora was also a contender for the Wallabies job in 2008, before New Zealand overlooked Robbie Deans for the All Blacks job, but he was subsequently involved with the Kiwi in the Australian set-up. He was appointed ARU high performance manager in 2009, and acted as a Test selector and assistant coach. He also coached the Australia Under-20 team.
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