MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Rugby Australia (RA) have appointed long-serving World Rugby administrator Peter Horne to take over the country’s high performance programme and will also welcome back David Nucifora from Ireland in an advisory role.
Horne, World Rugby’s high performance boss, will start his new role in March after nearly 14 years at the global governing body.
RA said the Australian will lead all of the country’s high performance rugby programmes, including the Wallabies, the national women’s Wallaroos and rugby sevens.
He will also drive the alignment of Australian Super Rugby clubs’ high-performance programmes and pathway structures with the Wallabies’ systems in a bid to turn around the struggling national team.
The Wallabies crashed out of the pool phase at the World Cup in France, their worst-ever performance at the global showpiece.
Australian Nucifora, currently Ireland’s high performance chief, will take up his advisory role after the Paris Olympics.
RA will next focus on filling the Wallabies’ head coach position following Eddie Jones’s resignation. The governing body hopes to announce a new coach before Super Rugby starts in February.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
