Salary review forces players to quit: Sevens coach Treu not happy with handling of national team salaries

kenya national rugby sevens team coach Paul Treu during his arrival l at the jomo keyatta international airport on tuesday morning with the team from the 1st leg of HSBC Rugby series in gold coast in australia.PHOTO DAVID GICHURU

A policy that delegates different roles to directors of the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) could, after all, be the cause of the woes of the Kenya Sevens rugby team.

The national squads docket is being handled to the dissatisfaction of the Kenya Sevens Performance Director, Paul Treu and many players.

For instance, in an ongoing revamped system of awarding one-year contracts to players, wages have been reduced.

Instead of raising a storm, which they feel would in any case be futile, several players have quietly devised ways of opting out of the squad by reporting unavailability.

The KRU chairman Mwangi Muthee said yesterday handling of the national squads docket will be streamlined but also added that, worldwide, that is always a challenge to any Union.

He said over two-and-a-half years ago, former England coach Mike Friday took charge of the Kenya Sevens and in a few months had led the team to the third overall position in the HSBC Sevens World Rugby Series. Yet, not long down the line, some members of the KRU board were calling for his sacking.

“It took some jostling before we could retain Mike (Friday) to lead the team to the Sevens Rugby World Cup in Moscow, where he had a fantastic fourth-place finish,” said Muthee.

Muthee said there were still some people taking too much for granted that the Kenya Sevens team would perform well despite self-inflicted limiting issues.

He said: “We are not going to allow the disfranchising of established players nor make aspiring young players hopeless. We are going to open up excellent opportunities to those committed to the squad (Tier 1) so that they can rely on their performance to earn a decent living as long as they are in the squad.”

He signalled a deliberate intervention when he added: “The performance-based contracts should not include salary cuts. In fact, there will be better remuneration, better insurance and medical cover. You’ve got to put this in place so that you can demand more from players.”

As chairman of KRU, Muthee said that is what he would push for and stick to, no matter the opposition.

He said with frugal management, there would be enough money for the plan.

After last weekend’s Dubai Sevens where the largely inexperienced team lost heavily, sponsors Kenya Airways re-affirmed their support and the KQ CEO, Mbuvi Ngunze, hosted a luncheon for the quad.

Ngunze told the team to “continue playing hard and smart,’’ and added: “Plug your ears not to listen to the voices of distraction. Sports performance is about resilience; about picking yourself up after you go down.”