Rugby story by Carl Anders, Wed, 12 Apr 2006 11:48:00 GMT


Wigan have sacked Ian Millward after just 325 days as their coach on Wednesday. The Super League club is battling relegation and after a spate of miserable defeats under Millward, the club decided to let him go. His sacking comes just three days before Wigan are scheduled to face Millward's old club St Helens.

The controversial Australian still has three years left to run on his contract, but he paid the price for what was a wretched start to the season. His premature sacking is likely to cost Wigan £400,000 in compensation, but the club appeared to have lost all faith in Millward.

"Following a meeting of the board of directors earlier today, the Wigan club can confirm that head coach Ian Millward has been dismissed with immediate effect. The club will be appointing a new head coach to replace Ian Millward and an announcement will be made in the near future," a Wigan statement said.

This statement came just 24 hours after Millward claimed that he had two solid offers to return to Oz, but had rejected them to stay on in Wigan. "My manager has told me he has had two enquires from Australia, but I've said no way," he told Wigan Today.

"I'm going to see it through at Wigan and get them back up off the bottom of Super League. I signed on for three-and-a-half years and I've never thought about stepping away." Millward's former assistant Andrew Farrar has been put temporarily in charge of Wigan, but the club has promised to appoint a new head coach soon. This new appointment will be Wigan's 10th coach in as many years. Millward had come to Wigan in May last after he was first suspended and then sacked by St Helens for using foul and abusive language.

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