By BS Mulavi
Sacked Kenya nation Rugby Sevens coach Mitch Ocholla has termed his dismissal and the entire technical bench as “a knee-jerk reaction.”
Instead, the former Under 19 national team coach challenged the Kenya Rugby Union to look at themselves in the mirror in search for the real issues plaguing the side.
“Personally I feel this is a knee-jerk reaction that would not remedy the situation at all,” lamented a bitter Ocholla.
“What we need to know as the outgoing team is will they start paying players’ allowances when they get a new coach? It is no secret that players are still not getting paid in time. We have situations where players wait for months just to get a cent from the union.”
He added: “What we have is a situation where our main sponsor was discontent with the team’s performance and the KRU immediately went into panic mode,” he added.
The Sevens team finished 12 in the just concluded IRB series during which Ocholla’s side amassed a paltry 40 points prompting bloodbath on the technical bench.
But Ocholla insists putting the technical bench through the guillotine is not the answer to the Sevens team’s future.
It is thought the KRU gurus will line up former England Sevens coach Mike Friday to restructure the team as they look to the future.
A bitter Ocholla, however, feels betrayed and wonders where the top brass would get the funds to pay a foreign coach yet, “if you struggled to pay the players regularly where will you get money to sustain a foreign coach?”
Ocholla said he struggled to get players to continue playing in the middle of the past season following some disquiet over unpaid dues.
