Scottish Rugby’s performance director David Nucifora says the governing body have received interest in the vacant head coaching job with the women’s national team squad “from all different corners of the world”.
With Scotland now out of the Women’s Rugby World Cup after a run to the last eight, Bryan Easson’s tenure in the role has come to an end and Nucifora, CEO Alex Williamson and others at the top end of the governing body are working hard to get the right successor in place to work with a team that is now sixth in the world and has been as high as fifth as recently as 12 months ago.
“We’ve been working on this now for in excess of a month, we’ve already built a long list of interested parties, Nucifora said while addressing press on Thursday after the governing body announced its annual contracting model for the 2025/26 season for the women’s game.
“We’ve received a lot of other interest on top of that with a lot of it’s come from current international head coaches and assistant coaches – and that interest has come from all different corners of the world.
“So, we’re really gathering quite an extensive list of interested parties and it’s really encouraging.”
“At the moment we’re looking for a head coach and two assistant coaches [Tyrone Holmes, the only assistant coach who was on a long-term contract, is set to be leaving], that’s the starting point. They will be the three that we’ll firstly go to.
“We have other people within our national team staff that are still in contract so those people are all coming back into working within the programme as well as well as the extra resources that we’re adding to it, based on the fact that we are going to be functioning out of Oriam, so it’s [the women’s programme] going to be considerably better resourced than what it’s ever been before.
“In terms of the head coach role, we’re working through the process. It takes quite a bit of time to make sure we’ve been thorough in the approach. We’ve had a lot of interest so once that interest closes we’ll start to go through a process that will narrow the candidates down. It’s not worth trying to put a timeline on it, but in saying that we’re conscious we want to be moving as fast as we can to get the right candidate.
“Obviously, it’s got to be someone that can show us they’ve got the ability to keep evolving the women’s game in Scotland.
“You’ve got to have the skillset to be someone who understands where the game is now and where it can go. You’ve got to be someone that understands the playing group you have to work with and what you’re going to be able to develop them. There’s a multiple number of skills you need to be a head coach in the first place and they’re a given. It’ll depend on who ticks most of those boxes and shows us they have the ability, passion and drive to take the game forward.
“We expect to have someone in over the next couple of months, that’s the ambition.”
- The matchday 23s have been named for the two remaining Women’s Rugby World Cup games to come on Saturday – the bronze medal clash and the final.
Scottish Rugby performance director David Nucifora is pictured
From August 7 until September 30, GH Media will be following the Scotland World Cup journey all of the way. We will be at all of the Scotland matches down south and will be bringing you all of the interviews and news from camp as well as taking a wider look at the tournament as a whole and its impact on the women’s game. Thanks to Quirky Chocolate and other supporters for allowing this content to happen and to readers for engaging with it.