It’s now more than five months since the Flying Fijians’ head coach, Simon Raiwalui, announced that he would be standing down at the end of his contract.
The news broke shortly after Fiji’s quarter-final defeat to England at the Rugby World Cup in France, and Raiwalui’s contract expired at the end of last year.
So you would think the interim board of trustees who are currently running the Fiji Rugby Union have had plenty of time to find a new coach.
And yet still the saga rolls on, with Fiji’s showpiece match against the Barbarians in London just three months away now.
So why is the process taking so long?
A leading figure in Fijian rugby for many years, former FRU board member Culden Kamea, who publishes the online Teivovo Rugby magazine, says the FRU reached a decision on the new appointment, choosing Drua coach Mick Byrne.
But that decision was rejected by the Fijian government, which wanted local candidate Seni Seruvakula to take the role, and it’s understood the Immigration Department refused to issue Byrne with the appropriate visa.
All this has not gone down well with World Rugby, and with the FRU already suspended from the World Rugby Council over finance and governance issues, Culden Kamea says the union could be heading for the rocks.
