After losing to South Africa at the semi-final stage last year, the national women’s Sevens team seek to make amends when the Women’s World Sevens Series qualifier start in Hong Kong tomorrow.
The Lionesses head to the two-day tournament having been boosted by the return of Janet Owino, who has recovered from an ankle injury which ruled her out for one year. Nakuru RFC’s Vivian Akumu is the only debutant in the squad that is captained by seasoned Philadelphia Olando.
With World Rugby having increased the number of legs in the Women’s Series from six to eight starting next season, Lionesses head coach Kevin Wambua has reiterated the importance of having his side qualify for the tournament.
“It is a good squad and we are going to give our best in Hong Kong. This year we want to go a step further and earn the ticket to be a core team because there is a lot to play for in the series,” Wambua said.
In what will be Lionesses’ first assignment of the year, the Kenyans will be up against hosts Hong Kong, neighbours Uganda as well as Papua New Guinea in pool B as they train their sights on a place in the quarterfinals.
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“It is a quite familiar pool; we know all the teams well as we have played them before. We have done our homework on how we are going to approach those games,” said Wambua.
Kenya will open their campaign against Uganda, a side they thrashed 47-0 when they last met at last year’s Safari Sevens in Nairobi. They will then confront the hosts before coming up against Papua New Guinea in their final match of the pool stage.
“We have been able to play against some of the world’s best teams and managed to be competitive. That is something we have been building on from the Dubai Sevens last year,” said Wambua.
“We have been focusing so much on our conditioning and just trying to improve our skills ahead of the tournament. We also polished our set-piece and execution and also put in a lot of work on our defensive structure,” added Wambua.
The winner of the 12-team showpiece will book a slot at the 2019-2020 Women’s World Sevens Series.
Lionesses fixtures in Hong Kong
Tomorrow
Versus Uganda - 6:06 am
Versus Hong Kong - 8:40 am
Versus Papua New Guinea – 11:14 am
Hong Kong Sevens Women’s pools
Pool A: Japan, Belgium, Scotland, Mexico
Pool B: Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Uganda
Pool C: Brazil, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Poland
