Drua to name head coach in August

The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua is hopeful of announcing their new head coach in August.

Speaking to SUNsports yesterday, Fijian Drua chief executive officer Jeff Miller said they are still shortlisting the applicants and are likely to begin with the interviews next week. However, this will depend on the availability of the panel.

“We have received 40 (coaching) applications from around the globe,” the legendary Wallabies backrow said.

Miller said there were ‘many high quality’ coaches that had applied.

“We had established an entry criteria, where all applicants have coached successful in an equivalent competition, have an affinity with Fiji and have a World Rugby Level 3 coaching accreditation.”

Miller said while they haven’t had many local coaches applying for the role they are committed to continue developing local coaches through their development programmes, so that soon they have a qualified pipeline to choose from.

The current Drua head coach Glen Jackson leaves at the end of this Super Rugby Pacific season while assistant coach Tim Sampson joins Edinburgh as their attack coach.

The Drua takes on Queensland Reds in Brisbane, Australia, on Friday in the final round of the Super Rugby Pacific competition.