By John Lawrence
Mike Friday, the Kenya Sevens Head Coach, will still have his job, albeit till the rugby World Cup tournament to be held in Moscow, Russia in June.
When the much awaited Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) board members’ meeting was concluded at their headquarters only Mwangi Muthee the board’s Chairman could afford a smile as the other members of the board sat quietly.
A calm Muthee read a statement saying; “I wish to offer my sincere appologies to all our benefactors, Kenyans, and our sponsors for the recent actions, which may seem to have poured cold water on the exemplary performance of the boys.”
The chairman added that it was unfortunate for a member of the board to have acted contrary to the resolutions that the board had passed.
“The recent utterances and actions lacked decorum and were issued in the heat of the moment.
“However, all will be well,” said Muthee.
Muthee explained that the decision to hire Mike Friday was to make up for the poor string of results exhibited by the team during the last year’s IRB Sevens series.
On the key raised about Friday’s conduct and big budget, Muthee opted to stand by the coach.
“I don’t want to castigate Friday for overshooting the budget because the buck stops with us at the union. However, Kenyans must also understand that Friday is human and as such he also has a family who do not live in Kenya,” he said.
“The board agreed to have a season review of Mike Friday’s tenure and performance then make a decision after the World Cup.
“Friday has accepted on principle that he will handle the team to the World Cup whether we agree with him or not after the season’s review because he loves the team and would love to leave with his head high, he wants to win the world cup,” said the chairman.
However, Muthee hinted that the board would hire another coach after the World Cup but only failed short of making it official.
“We need a coach who would be more committed to the team. As you know Friday has more than two other jobs but we need to move forward and build a stronger team going forward.
Meanwhile, in Wellington, winger Frank Halai has marked his first season in top-level rugby with inclusion in an enlarged All Blacks training squad to prepare for next month’s three-test series against France.
Halai, playing in his first Super Rugby season with the Auckland-based Blues, is the top try-scorer in the southern hemisphere.
