Termination

Fiji Times - Thursday, May 08, 2008 4:37 PM

FITNESS trainer Henry Elder has been dropped by the Fiji Rugby Union as a result of the poor performances of the Fiji teams in the Pacific Rugby Cup competition.

Elder was part of the management team that helped shape the Flying Fijians for the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Riding high from a successful RWC campaign, the FRU had set high expectations from the Air Pacific Fiji Warriors and Air Pacific Fiji Barbarians.

But the teams sit on the bottom half of the competition having notched a win and two losses each.

Both coaches Eddie Waqa and Iliesa Tanivula were given a stern warning while Elder did not have his contract renewed because of non-performance.

Elder has been replaced by Nacanieli Cawanibuka.

A rugby source said Elder was being used as a "scapegoat" for the below-par performances of the Warriors and Barbarians.

"It all began after the Colonial Cup. The FRU said the fitness level of the franchise teams was below par and this moved on to the PRC teams," the source said.

"Henry has been used as a scapegoat and blamed for the losses. It's really unfortunate."

A national training program, which is a duplicate of the Flying Fijians winning formula in France, was distributed to Colonial Cup franchises.

Elder was then given the task to ensure that the six teams followed the program during the off-season (November-December) before competition in January.

The source said Elder was hard done because the franchises were under resourced and found it hard to follow the program.

"The Colonial Cup teams were not being given enough funding and time to prepare themselves," the source said.

"With the lack of finance, how does the FRU expect to get players together for fitness training in the morning and then skill work in the afternoon?

"It was difficult getting players together. The low fitness level started from the Colonial Cup into the Pacific Rugby Cup competition.

"Henry was dropped for not getting the program through to the players."

When contacted, Elder did not want to comment on his removal but wished the Flying Fijians the best.

Efforts to contact FRU chief executive Ratu Timoci Tavanavanua were unsuccessful because he is on leave.

FRU operations manager Vilikesa Rinavuaka confirmed Elder was no longer employed at Rugby House.

"As I understand it, it was due to non-performance but you'll need to confirm with Peter Murphy," Rinavuaka said.

High Performance Unit manager Peter Murphy is in Australia and could not be contacted.