Fortune can at times lead to misfortune.

So much has become a characteristic of Laim Middleton’s rugby coaching career – a man who was fortunate eough to get coach Bristol rugby but was fired before he dumbed Zimbabwe out of the 2015 World Cup.

With Zimbabwe needing just a try to make it to the 2015 World Cup two years ago, Middleton instructed and insisted that the Sables take a penalty kick instead of going for a try, and in so doing flyhalf Guy Cronje just kicked away Zimbabwe’s third World Cup appearance.

This is also the same man who in 2014 appointed himself as the Zimbabwe Rugby Union Sevens coach when he battled off veteran Gilbert Nyamutsamba during the Zimbabwe Sevens International Invitational tournament and the former Gweru winger had to watch from the terraces.

This is also the same man who – after shrugging off Nyamutsamba from his post – failed to take the Cheetahs to World Series qualification as he led Zimbabwe to their worst finish in the Hong Kong Qualifier tournament.

Under Nyamutsamba, the Cheetahs had made it to the final the previous year, and needed to win the event but Middleton could not take the side past the quarter final stage – their worst result at the qualifiers then.

However, Canada were so daring to employ an ever failing Middleton but just 30 months into his job as Canada Sevens coach, the Americans decided to part ways with him as he was fired.

Following performance review, Canada Rugby indicated they would not renew Middleton’s contract for failing to take the Sevens side to greater heights, instead under his leadership the side took a nosedive and plummeted as he failed to reach contractual goals.

When he took over as Canada Sevens coach, the Sevens side were the sixth best Sevens rugby playing nation in the world but upon his departure, they were at least twice as bad – closing the just ended season as the 13^th ranked side in the world and also missing on Olympic qualification.

Rugby Canada's general manager of rugby operations and performance expressed disappointment over Middleton’s failure to take their Sevens brand to a better level.

“There’s a lot of very disappointed men who had aspirations of going to Rio. I think it was very attainable.  That dream for some of those players is over. There's no doubt we're very disappointed we're not there and we believe we should have been (in Rio)," Jim Dixon,

"I believe they went to the competition in Monaco and even to NACRA the year prior with a very strong chance of winning those competitions and they didn't do that. And obviously the review has made us look pretty hard at not just leadership within the moment but also our playing depth and how we're playing and all sorts of other issues to see how we move forward."

Canada had a disappointing last-chance qualifying tournament in Monaco last month, where they lost in the quarter-finals to Russia after finishing second to Germany in their group.

“Rugby Canada will conduct a global search for a permanent head coach immediately. It is expected there will be plenty of interest in fulfilling this important role and the necessary time will be taken to find the right candidate,” added Rugby Canada chief executive Allen Vansen.

Middleton had been the head coach of Canada’s Rugby Sevens team since September of 2014.

It remains to be seen how fortunate – or unfortunate – Middleton will be in the next few months.