While professional sport often sees coaches fired or hired based on performance, the ACT Brumbies' David Nucifora was in a unique position going into the Super 12 rugby final against Canterbury.
Regardless of the result, Nucifora would finish the match without a job after being told midway through the season that his contract would not be renewed.
On Saturday, Nucifora became Super 12's most successful unemployed coach following the Brumbies' 47-38 victory over the Crusaders at Canberra Stadium.
PHOTO: AFP
Nucifora led the Brumbies to a first-place finish, six points head of the Crusaders, in the round-robin portion of the annual tournament.
The Brumbies beat the Waikato Chiefs 32-17 in the semifinals then began the final against another New Zealand side, the Crusaders, in frenetic fashion.
The Brumbies built a 33-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes, ensuring Nucifora would have a 2004 championship to add to his resume.
"That was the most amazing 20 minutes of football I've ever seen," Nucifora said. "You wouldn't even have dreamed of having a start in a big match like that, and I was pinching myself watching it.
"We may have let in 40 points in the end, but who cares?"
While Nucifora can now celebrate, his future is less clear with no concrete offers on the table.
"I've got nothing solid, nothing to keep the bank manager happy," said Nucifora. "I'll worry about these things in the next couple of weeks, but right now, I'll just enjoy the occasion."
The Brumbies had won the Super 12 title only once in four previous finals attempts, twice losing to the Crusaders, including a one-point loss in 2000 in Canberra.
Crusaders captain Reuben Thorne said his side was slow at the outset.
"We had a shocker of a start and against a quality team like this there's no way most sides would ever come back," said Thorne.
The Brumbies will lose four senior players next year, including veteran fullback Joe Roff. Roff scored two tries, the last giving him the record for the most tries in Super 12 history with 57.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB