There is no interference of Fiji Government on who will be named the new Flying Fijians head coach.
This was confirmed by Minister for Youth and Sports Jese Saukuru following their meeting with World Rugby officials two weeks ago.
One of the two World Rugby representatives included former Flying Fijians head coach and now World Rugby’s High Performance Pathways and Player Development Manager Simon Raiwalui.
Saukuru indicated there was no threat of any sort from World Rugby to withdraw funding and there was no clash of names on who is going to take charge of the national 15s side forward.
He said FRU’s interim board of trustees is only left with two names, Fiji Warriors head coach Senirusi Seruvakula and Swire Shipping Fijian Drua head coach Mick Byrne.
Saukuru added that there were some issues that needed to be ironed out before the announcement of the national rugby coach.
“In actual fact we are trying to get who will be the best out of the two, both have proved themselves, but we love to see the best person to take over,” he said.
“There are some technical issues regarding one of the coaches, one of the names that we are left with; we want to give both of them a fair chance.”
Asked if Seruvakula was the Government’s choice, Saukuru said: “As Government we don’t want to be seen interfering with any sporting organisation, we do not want to be seen like that, we’d rather work with them.
“Our role is to support sporting organisation like the Fiji Rugby Union or any other sporting body, we love to see them flourish and get the best for them.”
He said that World Rugby would remain committed to FRU and continue its support in developing and training coaches, administrators and the High-Performance Unit.
“Government will be paying for the coach, whoever that will be finally selected by the (interim) board of trustees,” Saukuru said.
“There was nothing to do with threatening, they have given some assurance they wish to continue supporting Fiji from where we left off in the last World Cup (reaching the quarterfinal) and we appreciated that.”.
