KRU to go local: A Kenyan coach will succeed Snook, reveals Omwela

Kenya Rugby Union will engage a local Kenya Simbas coach this year after terminating New Zealanders Ian Snook and Murray Roulston’s contracts.

Roulston and Murray were appointed in April last to steer Kenya to their maiden Rugby World Cup but failed terribly, with the Simbas losing all their matches to finish last at the repechage behind Canada, Germany and Hong Kong.

The New Zealand tacticians had replaced South African Jerome Paarwter, who was in charge of the national team since 2012.

Sources said the New Zeland duo had a bad working relationship with the other members of the technical beach and that was evidenced by the haphazard team selections during the Africa Gold Cup and the repechage.

Kenya Rugby Union chairman Richard Omwela said they will appoint a local coach to handle the side due to the financial challenges facing the union. “We will appoint a local coach who can handle the side and we have big pool of coaches, whom I believe can help us improve on our ranking,” said Omwela.

He added that the coach will be appointed as soon as they get their fixtures from Rugby Africa. “Once we get the fixtures from Rugby Africa, then we can appoint a local to start planning and calling up players for the matches,” added Omwela.

He added that plans are underway to have the 15’s play Hong Kong, Romania or Germany in June to complement the fixtures in the Africa Gold Cup. “We need competitive fixtures this year. It’s an area we lacked and paid heavily for after failing to qualify for the World Cup. “We are talking to the three countries and hopefully we can get one of them to play against our team,” noted Omwela.