Rod Kafer resigns as Saracens Head Coach

Rod Kafer
By Jason Harris
December 14 2004

Saracens have announced that Head Coach Rod Kafer has resigned with immediate effect after 18 months in charge at the club. Kafer's assistant Steve Diamond is to take over the reins at Vicarage Road.

Kafer said on the club's official site "Following discussions about extending my time at Saracens until the end of the 2007 season, I came to the conclusion that my preference was to seek opportunities elsewhere after completing my current contract, due to expire in May 2005. In light of this, Chief Executive Mark Sinderberry and I have decided that it is in the club’s best interests that I stand down as Head Coach immediately."

The former Australian international who was brought in from Leicester as player coach before retiring and concentrating on coaching full-time in the summer of 2003 also expressed his thanks to the club's Board of Directors for their support and his best wishes for the players and coaches he leaves behind.

Kafer's former ACT Brumbies colleague and Saracens Chief Executive Mark Sinderberry reciprocated the thanks and expressed his confidence in Diamond who now inherits the top job. "When Steve was appointed," he said "it was with a view that he would succeed Rod should he take the decision to leave Saracens. Steve knows the club and the players and we believe he is the right person to take the role."

Kafer's future had been the source of some speculation for many months after his name was linked with several jobs in his homeland, notably a coaching position at the new professional outfit in Perth. And, after a disappointing run of results that culminated in the heavy defeat at Harlequins and the subsequent loss away to Parma, the writin, according to some media sources, was on the wall forthe 33 year-old.

Another rumour to re-surface in recent weeks is that Diamond's colleague at Sale, Jim Mallinder, is keen to get back into club coaching since his resignation from the Sharks earlier this year. Since his departure from Edgely Park, Mallinder has been assisting Brian Ashton with the England academy which has not been a full-time job and he allegedly wants to return to a position that has day-to-day involvement. Whether the two former Sharks, who were also in tandem in charge of England A's Churchill Cup campaign last summer, will be re-united remains to be seen.