Add more rugby trophies to empty cabinet

Teams representing the country in various seven-a-side rugby tournaments have a small window to get it right before the new season kicks off in a few weeks. The Kenya Simbas will be the first team to taste action on November 10 when the Hong Kong Cup of Nations kicks off in Asia, followed shortly by the national sevens team’s engagement in the HSBC Sevens World Series in Dubai from December 1.

Commendably, the Kenya Sevens team seems to be taking its assignments seriously and has chosen to relocate the training venue to a high altitude fitness camp in Nanyuki to focus on physical conditioning. This out-of-the-box thinking is what engenders success — it is widely believed that training at high altitude stimulates a more efficient use of oxygen by the muscles and builds on endurance when competing at sea level.

Rugby fans have been quite starved of success after a twelfth placing in the last edition of the HSBC series and will be looking at the team to fire up a nation that has been enmeshed in a divisive elections and is yearning for a unifying symbol to help hold the country together.

For the first time, Africa sevens champions Uganda have joined the HSBC fray and will be snipping at the heels of the Kenya team. If nothing else, the traditional rivalry between the two teams should spur the Kenya team to success — a success rugby fans are aggressively rooting for.