Niall Doherty is to continue as coach of the Greece national rugby side for the 2007-8 season.

The 53-year-old Irishman, who is based in Cyprus, was appointed for the one-off game against Slovakia in May as a replacement for the New Zealander Matt Bridge.

Greece won the game in Thessaloniki 20-17 and were promoted to FIRA group 3C where they will meet the likes of Finland, Luxembourg and Israel.

Because the existing 3C group is in the middle of a two-year tournament, there will be no FIRA games for Greece during the next 12 months but there are likely to be a number of friendlies.

"I have agreed to carry on for another year in the hope that I can help Greek rugby to move forward," Doherty told sportingreece.com.

"There are some good players here and I think things are going in the right direction. "

Doherty, however, who is also director of rugby at the Cyprus Rugby Federation, said that it was unlikely that he would be able to continue beyond that.

"I am happy to continue with Greece so long as they don't cross with the work that I am doing in Cyprus," he said.

"At the moment Cyprus are in group 3D and if we win that and beat the bottom side in Group 3C then we will be in the same group as Greece. And obviously then the position would not be tenable."