Damian McGrath has been let go as head coach of the troubled Langford-based men鈥檚 Canadian rugby sevens national side just two months ahead of the Americas鈥� regional Olympic qualifier.
The announcement was made late Thursday evening and no reason was provided.
Current Canadian XVs assistant coach Henry Paul from England was named interim head coach through the Olympic qualifier, which runs July 6-7 in the Cayman Islands, to the end of the World Series season.
This follows the two months lost in preseason training last fall at Westhills Stadium, due to a labour dispute between the players and Rugby sa国际传媒, from which the national side never recovered. It is 12th in the World Series standings and well off the top-four pace required to achieve automatic qualification into the 2020 Olympics. sa国际传媒 must now win the Americas tournament to qualify for Tokyo.
鈥淭he pinnacle event in 2019 for the men鈥檚 sevens program is the 2020 Olympic Games regional qualification this July in Grand Cayman, and the result at this tournament is paramount to ensure qualification for the Olympic Games,鈥� said Rugby sa国际传媒 CEO Allen Vansen, in a statement.
鈥淎 change in leadership now provides the team an opportunity to refine their play through the final two stops on the [World Series] and ensure thorough preparation for the [Olympic] qualifying tournament.鈥�
The 59-year-old McGrath, from England and who previously coached the Samoan sevens team to some success, was hired as Canadian head coach in October of 2016. He replaced Liam Middleton of Zimbabwe, who failed to qualify sa国际传媒 for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
鈥淲e would like to thank Damian for his time with Rugby sa国际传媒 and the contributions he made to our sevens development, and wish him well in his future endeavours,鈥� said Vansen.
This latest upheaval, in what has already been a turbulent season, couldn鈥檛 come at a more awkward time with the Olympic qualifier looming.
鈥淐hanges in program leadership are always difficult decisions to reach,鈥� said Vansen.
鈥淗owever, this is part of developing and operating a competitive high performance program.鈥�
As part of the shake-up, a Performance Leadership Group was announced to operate the high-performance operations of all Rugby sa国际传媒鈥檚 national teams, which are based in Langford. The group will make the technical decisions as they pertain to team performance. The leadership group will consist of men鈥檚 XVs head coach Kingsley Jones, women鈥檚 sevens head coach John Tait, director of performance Matt Barr and managing director of rugby operations Dustin Hopkins.
