NAIROBI, Kenya, February 27- The national rugby sevens team is reportedly in turmoil with core players threatening to boycott the Hong Kong 7s following the sacking of Collins Injera by the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU).
The squad that resumed training for the March 22 to 24 sixth leg of the HSBC World Series last week has been rocked by the Union’s decision to sack the dependable winger over what it termed as ‘indiscipline and absconding duty’.
Other players irked by the decision have indicated willingness to quit the Hong Kong bound squad in solidarity of their colleague whom they say is a victim of a tussle between the Union and his Mwamba RFC club.
However, Union boss Mwangi Muthee, said the decision to sack the popular player was arrived at the recommendation of head coach, Mike Friday.
“The Kenya Sevens team is on transition, we are headed to full professionalism and some of our boys are finding it difficult to cope with the sacrifices they have to make. The level of discipline has to go a notch higher.
“We want to be world champions, there is a lot of character and value that needs to be developed so that we can be the best in the world. We are not going to compromise on discipline,” the KRU chair, Muthee, who is attending a seminar in South Africa said on phone to local channel, K24.
“We have contractual obligations and we must have order. You do not wake up one day and say you do not want to train. We have Friday who is the head coach and he does not tolerate indiscipline and we will build a team from scratch if we have to. Let us give him a chance to develop the team,” Muthee added.
“Nobody can stop Collins from developing his career after rugby but indiscipline cannot be tolerated. He has not been training and wants to be in the team! That is unacceptable,” the chair thundered denying they were interfering with the player’s life outside the sport.
“Those are sideshows, he is not training and he will be a bad example to the other boys. I have sons who are studying like Collins.”
Last week, Mwamba suspended Injera and his national sevens team mates, Dennis Ombachi and Horace Otieno for failing to honour their Kenya Cup semi final against Strathmore Leos where they lost 18-15.
The winger is caught between his compulsory internship at Daystar University where he studies, his club and national team where he petitioned the parties involved to seek for an amicable solution before news his contract had been terminated broke.
Injera’s sacking has also caused a row on social networks with KRU coming under fire for sanctioning the dependable player with the bile directed towards the National Team and Elite Performance Director, Philip Jalango.
“They got to be serious, can a brother explain, pole cc @cinjera,” Waingo posted on Twitter.
“So Jalango has been seeking to revenge on @cinjera since that deduction of salary incident. #kenya7s. Jalango has never played the game and he does not get the brotherhood, #kenya7s will not play without @cinjera,” Tony Onyango added.
