Ulster Rugby vs Toulon

21 / 66

19 ULSTERRUGBY
IRFU TO INTRODUCE MEN’S
SEVENS PROGRAMME
The IRFU has entered a team in the Men’s
Rugby Europe Championships that take
place in Montenegro in June 2015 and will
compete in Division C of that competition.
David Nucifora, commented, “We are
starting right down at the bottom and will
work our way up. The Sevens programme
is part of the development pathway.
Sevens is a wonderful game in that it allows
you to judge talent and give players the
opportunity to play another form of the
game that shows you different things about
their strengths and weaknesses.
“Sevens as a game has really developed
over the past three to five years. It’s a very
confrontational game now. You quickly
learn about players whether they can tackle
whether they can carry - a whole range
of different things about them that are
important to both forms of the game.
IRFU Performance Director David Nucifora has announced
that Irish Rugby will be introducing a Men’s Sevens
Programme this season as part of the IRFU’s expanded
Player Development Pathway.
“As we are starting in Division C it will
very much be a crawl before you can walk
scenario. This year the Sevens Programme
will be based on the couple of tournaments
that are available to us, a couple of warm-
up tournaments and the camps where we
assemble the talent we have identified.”
Speaking of where the players for the
Sevens Programme will come from,
Nucifora said, “We are conscious that we
don’t place any extra burden on any of
the provincial teams so primarily it will be
academy, sub-academy and club players.
Giving players an opportunity to jump into
that player pathway. Hopefully we will find
players we haven’t seen before and they
may very well end up being players that are
re-introduced into the 15s game at a higher
level.”
SEVENS RUGBY
UlsterBranch