In a job interview it’s good to give the most qualified, experienced and proven candidate the job. KRU after interviewing local and foreign candidates settled on the best Rugby Coach in the world Gordon Tietjens. Thanks to Sportspesa 600 million sponsorship, funding is not a problem for the union. Tietjens is here on a short term basis so the union picked Innocent Simiyu as his understudy to learn from him and hopefully the knowledge he will leave here will inspire current and future players/coaches.
Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) will Thursday morning unveil former New Zealand tactician Gordon Tietjens as the new Kenya Sevens head coach. Sources within the union disclosed that the move to engage the 60-year-old veteran tactician was sealed on Tuesday evening by the KRU board. The board also settled on former Kenya 15s and Kenya Sevens skipper Innocent “Namcos” Simiyu as Tietjens’s deputy. KRU have held talks with Tietjens for the last one week with the coach revealing he was ready for a new venture. The source said that the board had put Samurai International coach Fijian Sailosi Naiteqe, a Level II coach, on standby. “They had a few issues to sort out with Tietjens and I guess everybody wanted to be happy since he comes from far,” the source told Daily Nation Sport.
“He is the best coach in the world and SportPesa, one of KRU’s sponsors, have indicated that they will be ready to pay for any coach.”
Tietjens stepped down as All Blacks coach after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, having won the World Rugby Sevens Series 12 times and the World Cup twice with the side. Although KRU chairman Richard Omwela could neither confirm nor deny this, he had earlier indicated that they would have loved to have the legendary coach as a consultant. Tietjens will be Kenya’s third foreign coach in the last four years after Briton Mike Friday, who handled the team for the 2012 and 2013 season and South African Paul Treu, who was in charge in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Tietjens was inducted to the World Rugby Hall of Fame in May 2012, and is revered as “The Greatest Sevens Coach” owing to his achievements in Sevens rugby where he handled All Blacks from 1994 to his retirement after the unsuccessful 2016 Olympics campaign. Simiyu, a Level II coach, edged out former Kenya Sevens deputy coaches Paul Murunga and Charles Cardovillis to the position. The 33-year-old Impala utility back captained Kenya Sevens between 2006 and 2008 and the 15s side in 2008 to 2011. However, Simiyu returned to the pitch in 2014 to coach and play for Impala. The same year, he won the Comeback Award during the Sports Personality of the Year (Soya) Gala. He made his return for Kenya 15s at the Africa Cup Division 1A this year before captaining Kenya “A” against Hong Kong in August this year.
Ayimba is the girlfriend who stick by your side when you are broke in 3rd and 4th year in campus. You become an Equity teller and floss with-umesema Gordon for slices- but end up with Ayimba for a wife while you mature.
Sio Kwa ubaya but Ayimba has done 0--------->7 of the race.
Now that KRU had the cash they felt they had the financial muscle to hire a foreigner with Ayimba vowing never to work under a foreigner as an assistant coach. Atleast wangempea hata season moja more then assess him based on that.
Ayimba is a good coach but his record in total is below average, apart from Singapore where we finally won the main cup, the rest was alot of inconsistencies. The final straw was the disastrous Rio Olympics. I want consistent performance not main cup today chasing All Blacks tomorrow even Russia can beat us. Gordon is here for a short term so let everyone learn from him.
after the departure of Friday its Ayimba who brought out Kenya’s best by surprising bigwigs like S.A, Fiji and even New Zealand in the just concluded circuit. The problem I think was with the strength & conditioning coach. Juu opening two games Kenya would stun big teams then third game lose to a low tier side like Russia.
“I, @BenAyimba, will not be an assistant to a foreign coach. I will just sit back and watch like any other Kenyan. We have gone through so much with this team, but now that they have received money, they can go for whoever they want,” #Kenya7s
Which game which circuit, last season S.A, Samoa, USA, England and All Blacks knew if they start well against us then we never recover. Kwanza S.A knew under pressure we crack. Singapore was the exception. Ayimba was the best coach to have on a roll but when things are bad he is clueless. The best half time team talk and subs used to be made by Mike Friday and that is why we were constantly playing for the main cup. I watch all Rugby 7 matches, the 15’s fitness coach is like a blood brother as he was a senior player in High School when I started playing Rugby. The info he gives me is very valid. Kenya Seven suffer from uncoordinated match preparation and routine mental preparation. All the other top teams do it as a science, from the gym, game plans, nutrition, excise, sleep, warm up and finally sharpness on the field. Sometimes our preparation feels like a celebrity rock band touring the world and that’s why on the pitch the basics sometimes evaporate from the team. Poor ball handling, poor decision making and switching off at crucial moments. Gordon has to fix this and get the team think, prepare, sleep Rugby, mental, physical and sharp talent.