Kenya bank on experience in bid for glory

Kenya's Jeffrey Oluoch is tackled by New Zealand's Jona Nareki

Kenya Sevens coach Innocent ‘Namcos’ Simiyu believes the national team will perform well in the Rugby Sevens World Cup that gets underway in San Francisco, USA, tomorrow to Sunday.

Shujaa begin their World Cup campaign in a new-look format tomorrow night at 11.01pm with a preliminary round match against Tonga at the iconic AT&T Park.

The winner between the two sides, who were ranked ninth to 24th basing on placement in the 2016/2017 World Rugby Sevens Series, will qualify to the next round of the competition where they will face-off with Scotland.

Having guided Kenya to their best points-finish (104) for a series in 2017/2018 season, Simiyu, who featured for Kenya in two Sevens World Cup tournaments (2005 and 2009), is banking on their preparation and experience to replicate their 2009 and 2013 performance.

Kenya reached the semifinals of both 2009 in Dubai and 2013 in Moscow. While Collins Injera,the second highest try scorer in HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series history, will be making his third appearance at the global show piece, the trio of Andrew Amonde, Eden Adero and William Ambaka have been named in the squad for a second straight World Cup appearance.

“We have a very strong squad based on training. The guys have really trained hard and we believe we have selected the best team that can represent the country. We’re looking for good performances from the players and hopefully we can get some good results,” said Simiyu.

To attain the feat, Shujaa must first put their recent off the pitch issues -which saw Simiyu reinstated after being sacked over the Paris Sevens sponsorship debacle -behind them.

And with the tricky new innovative format coming into place, the former Sevens and 15’s national teams captain has warned his charges not to underrate their opponents as every match counts for the participating 24 teams.

”It is an interesting format. This being a knockout, it means that you have to adapt very first to the chaos in the game ,” said Simiyu.

Meanwhile, Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) have received a Sh9 million sponsorship boost from Stanbic Bank. Kenya squad: Oscar Ayodi (captain), Collins Injera, Andrew Amonde, William Ambaka, Samuel Oliech, Nelson Oyoo, Dennis Ombachi, Jeff Oluoch, Brian Tanga, Eden Agero, Herman Humwa, Samuel Ngethe.