Snook targets World Cup qualification with Simbas

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Newly appointed Kenya Simbas head coach Ian Snook says qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan is his main target.

The experienced New Zealander, who will be in the country for the next two years was unveiled yesterday at the RFUEA Grounds alongside his compatriot and deputy Murray Roulston.

Snook replaces South African Jerome Paarwater, whose coaching stint at Simbas came to end in December last year.

The duo will work together with long-serving team manager Wangila Simiyu and Dominique Habimana (forwards coach). But it will not be a walk in the park for Snook as he has less than two months to prepare the national team for the six nations African qualifiers in June.

The winners of the tournament that includes Uganda, Morocco, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and Namibia will automatically qualify for the World Cup while the second-placed team will be relegated to a four-nation repechage tournament that will involve a team each from the Americas, Europe and Asia.

“It is up to us to do the right thing in the short time we have,” said Snook in his first press conference since succeeding Paarwater. 

“We feel very privileged to have been given this opportunity. We have got a good understanding of rugby and what we have to do here,” Snook said.

“We like what we are seeing and hearing about the Kenyan rugby, hopefully we are going to do something special to the Kenyan rugby.