David Nucifora leaves door open for Johnny Sexton coaching role

The IRFU are set to announce their replacement for outgoing attack coach Mike Catt in the coming weeks, but performance director David Nucifora is staying tight-lipped on their target's identity.

Catt's expected departure was confirmed yesterday as an addendum to their announcement that head coach Andy Farrell had agreed a contract extension until the end of the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

The union have moved quick to secure the Irish coach's services, while they're also wasting little time in moving to completing his coaching ticket, with Nucifora confirming they're at an advanced stage in talks with Catt's replacement.

"We're obviously talking to someone and it’s confidential but we’ll probably be in a position to announce it within a few weeks," he said at a media briefing at the IRFU high performance centre in Dublin yesterday.

Interestingly, Nucifora wouldn't be drawn on whether or not their target is one from within the Irish system, which naturally set tongues wagging about a potential role in the coaching set-up for Johnny Sexton.

The former Ireland captain retired from playing after the World Cup in October, and while he has taken up a job as a commercial manager for the sustainable packaging firm Ardagh Group, several of his former coaches and teammates have predicted him to be a coach in-waiting.

Nucifora wouldn't reveal whether or not Sexton is on the shortlist to replace Catt when the attack coach returns to England after the summer tour of South Africa, but said the IRFU would always be interested in having him involved.

"If he chose he'd like to do that [coaching] we’d absolutely work with him. I think for Johnny at the moment it’s just taking a bit of time to take a deep breath. It’s been a long career to decompress