Kenya launch World Series campaign in Hong Kong

By Ben Ahenda and Bs Mulavi

Kenya’s Vice Captain Collins Injera leads the Sevens team to the International Rugby Board (IRB) World Series in Hong Kong today targeting to write history.

The Mwamba utility winger, who plays as a scrum half at the international level, will become the third highest all time try scorer in the IRB Sevens World Series should he touch down in Hong Kong.

He is heading to Hong Kong Sevens with a score of 178 tries, just one behind former Blitzbok stalwart Fabian Juries and might make his way into the top three this weekend.

He might, in the long run, overhaul England’s Ben Gollings’s 220 tries or Santiago Gomez Cora’s 230 mark.

Injera made his debut for the Kenya team at the 2006 Dubai Sevens and has carved a niche in the sport in subsequent years winning major titles including being named the 2008-2009 series top try scorer after landing 42 times  and ending up as ‘The Player of the Year’ in that season.

Injera also featured at the 2009-2010 and 2013-2014 Sevens World Cups and propelled Kenya into the semi-finals on both occasions.

In Hong Kong, Kenya is in Pool A alongside Sri Lanka, Wales and Fiji. They open the campaign today with a match against Sri Lanka before facing Wales and Fiji tomorrow in the group-stage matches.

Kenya hopes to start on a high, ranked seventh in the IRB standings while Sri-Lanka is unseeded and this will be their first tournament in the IRB circuit.

Kenya team coach Paul Treu has kept faith with the squad that played last week in Tokyo and hope to improve on their Tokyo performance where they made it to the Main Cup and lost to Fiji in the Plate semi-finals.

The national women’s team, nicknamed Kenya Lioness, will also take part in the Hong Kong Sevens. The team is in Pool C together with France and China.

The Lioness launch their hunt against France at 4.10pm and later face China at 5.30pm.

Two more legs remain, in Edinbrough, Scotland and London in England, before the nine-leg series concludes.