Mike Friday, who led Kenya to fourth place finish at the Sevens Rugby World Cup in Moscow last weekend, will stay on as the team boss and will also be in-charge of training local coaches.
Kenya Sevens Head Coach Mike Friday. Photo: Courtesy KRU
However, Friday is likely to be named England’s coach ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.
When the Kenya team arrived back in Nairobi on Tuesday, Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) chairman Mwangi Muthee said the squad will take “deserved holiday”.
“In the meanwhile, our rugby focus will be trying to get the 15s team to qualify for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England and Wales, strengthen our Women’s national team and the boys’ Under-19 side,” said Muthee.
It was clear that the Union had a plan for a busier role for Friday in the future and that he would definitely be staying on as head coach.
“I will put this to rest once for all. We have a two-year contract with Mike [Friday] and have no good reason to cancel it. If anything he has done a tremendous job and anyone would be shooting at the heart of our Sevens’ plans if they tried to make a change,” said Muthee.
“What we should be looking at is a programme for him [Friday] to train local coaches to raise them to his standards. We should also be looking at raising funds so that we can uplift the pay of our current assistant coach, Felix Ochieng’ to reach what we are paying Mike.”
Muthee said to achieve this, more financial support was needed to supplement the funding for the Sevens’ team sponsors, Kenya Airways.
“Once again the team has had exemplary performance to the satisfaction of many including sponsors Kenya Airways, the Government and fans in general.
The recent success of the Kenya Sevens team, Muthee said, had also opened up opportunities for young sportsmen.
“Even before the World Cup we had Willy Ambaka attracting professional recruiting from Europe. This is a break and we are looking forward to more getting opportunities for well-paying careers of the standards in France and New Zealand,” he said.
By Feverpitch Reporter, The Standard
