Safaricom Sevens tourney to boost women game

Kenya Harlequins’ Amos Ngatia runs away from Masaku Fc players during their Christie Sevens at KRU Grounds on 6-09-2014.[PHOTO:DENNIS OKEYO]

In line with tradition, the Safaricom Sevens is expected to play a big role in the development of rugby in the country.
In another milestone for the tournament, the Kenya Rugby Union has announced the introduction of the U19 girls category. This will be the first time that the competition will have such a category and this will come as a boost for the senior women‘s side who will now have a feeder system for the side.
In a press statement by the KRU Malik Ndemi, Training and Development Co-ordinator at the Kenya Rugby Union said, „The introduction of this category is a first step geared towards talent identification for induction into the high performance set up, targeting selection for the national squad. We intend to have this competition annually as we look to grow the women‘s game and grow the player base. „
The inaugural competition will feature eight teams namely Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza, Central, Precious Blood, Maono, Arise and a Uganda select side.
This initiative be welcome given that the Women‘s team are fresh from Hong Kong, where they were they failed to qualify for core status in the International Rugby Board Women‘s sevens circuit. The side complained of fatigue, inexperience and poor facilities in preparation for the games. Should they have more depth, it will be a start as the Union looks to improve on the squad.
The U19 girls competition will be played alongside the U19 boys competition which has been a regular fixture in the tournament.
There will be a total of 10 teams in action at this year‘s boys‘ U19 competition at the Safaricom Sevens. Nairobi will field two teams with Rift Valley, Central, Eastern, Western, Coast, Rwanda, Uganda Select and Comras fielding one team each.
The boys U19 competition will kick off on Friday 26 September with the finals being played a day later at the Safaricom Stadium in Kasarani. Both categories for U19 will act as curtain raisers for the senior categories for both the men‘s and women‘s teams, where the Kenya National teams will be featuring along a host of other international teams and select players.