Ten foreign teams for Safaricom Sevens

By BEN AHENDA

Ten foreign teams have confirmed their participation in the Safaricom Sevens that will take place at the Moi International Sports Centre, Nairobi, from September 20 to 22.

They are Australia Renegades, England Royals, Belgium, Grenoble from France, Rwanda, leading invitational side Samurai, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa’s Western Province and Ponsonby from New Zealand.

They will be joined by hosts Kenya, Shujaa and a Kenya Sevens Academy consisting of Under-19 players in the main competition reserved for national teams from different countries.

The Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) is yet to release fixtures for Africa’s premier rugby competition that will act as a training session for the national team in readiness for the International Rugby Board (IRB) series, which kicks off in two weeks’ time, after the conclusion of the Safaricom Sevens.

National Sevens team interim coach, Felix Ochieng’, said they expect to finalise selection of the team by this evening.

“We hope to finalise our selection by the end of today from a provisional squad that started training three weeks ago,” Ochieng’ told FeverPitch.

The final selection of the Kenyan team to the IRB series comes after the conclusion of the National Sevens Circuit, which was won by Kenya Commercial Bank.

KRU Communications Manager Michael Kwambo said Safaricom Sevens will be the first assignment for the Kenya Sevens Academy as they prepare for the 2014 Youth Olympics in China, where Kenya and South Africa will represent African after receiving automatic qualification.

The Youth Olympics will also shape the team for the 2015 Rio De Janeiro Olympics according to the CEO of KRU, Jack Okoth.

In the meantime, Safaricom Sevens has been divided into several categories, which include the main event reserved for national teams, the schools and colleges’ category, the clubs championships, and the veterans’ category.

—bahenda@standardmedia.co.ke