David Humphreys has started his tenure as the IRFU’s new performance director.
DAVID HUMPHREYS IS no longer the IRFU ’s incoming performance director . He formally started in the role at the beginning of this month, having spent three months shadowing his predecessor, David Nucifora .
A thick skin is one of the prerequisites for the role, as Nucifora could underline to Humphreys. Decisions that benefit Ireland’s national teams will invariably frustrate someone, whether it’s provinces, clubs, coaches, administrators, or even IRFU committee members. In a departure from previous strategic plans, the latest document from the IRFU doesn’t include specific targets for Ireland and the four provinces when it comes to trophies. There will be key performance indicators included in the union’s annual reports, but it seems a less rigid way of doing it.
He points out that it’s almost 10 years to the day since he left his position as Ulster’s director of rugby, so he has returned with fresh thoughts. Humphreys has been with Gloucester, Georgia, and English cricket in the intervening years, meaning he brings different experiences to the party. “We have to make sure that all four provinces are in position to deliver players as they have in the last 150 years.
Unprompted, Humphreys pointed out that players who weren’t born in Ireland are now providing the most obvious attacking spark for Andy Farrell’s national team. It’s intriguing that Humphreys mentions the IRFU looking at other sports for athletes who could switch codes or at least focus on rugby over other early sporting interests.
One of the issues that repeatedly came up during Nucifora’s time was player movement between the Irish provinces, or rather the lack thereof. The Australian repeatedly intimated that he’d like to see players move more freely when they weren’t first-choice at one province. “It’s a really emotive issue in Irish rugby and I get why it is, but I don’t think there is one single answer or set of principles that you can say, ‘This is where we’re going to go forward,” said Humphreys.
“I will never move a player against their will. We will never move a player under contract against their will. It goes back to that identity piece. Where you have a player who we believe could be performing out there sitting in third, fourth or fifth in the province and not getting the game time that they need to develop, that’s sending a strong message about that player’s ambition to Andy Farrell and the people who pick the team.
But Humphreys said the IQ Rugby department of the union is “part of an ongoing review” as they figure out how that element of the IRFU is contributing. “All the provinces want to get off to a good start, so by announcing it last week we’ve gone very early. All-Ireland League clubs will be hoping those provincial A games don’t clash with their fixtures, which has been a huge point of frustration in the past.
David Humphreys David Nucifora Humphs IRFU Main Man Performance Director
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