Rugby: Kenya Sack Ian Snook as Head Coach

Ian Snook has left his position as coach of Kenya rugby team.

Snook took up the role in March 2018 but the Simbas were beaten by Namibia in 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifiers while landmark losses in Repechage have also occurred during his tenure.

Kenya Rugby Union aims to have his successor in place before the end of this month.

The Union’s chairman Richard Omwela said on Tuesday that the decision was taken as Snook failed to spur the side to Japan.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “The reason why we brought the coach was to help us with qualification for the World Cup. That didn’t happen. Now everybody is in the World Cup mood and we do not have assignments.”   [/perfectpullquote]

“Obviously we want to look at the big picture on how do we go into the next cycle of the World Cup,” said Omwela.

Kenya missed World Cup qualification through the Africa Gold Cup where they finished second to head to France for the last qualification -repechage.

In the repechage, the Simbas lost all three matches to finish fourth with no points. Canada were the overall winners, hence they took the last slot at the World Cup.

Snook coached Kenya in 10 matches managing to win five and lose five. Under his watch, Simbas routinely won the Elgon Cup beating Uganda 72-38 on aggregate.

He replaced Jerome Paarwater, who was fired in December 2017, having handled the team since 2012.

Paarwater almost guided the Simbas to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where the team failed to qualify on superior aggregate.

Namibia got the nod during the 2014 qualifiers, alongside automatic qualifiers South Africa.