National Sevens team land in Australia focused on annihilating rivals

By BS MULAVI and BEN AHENDA

Samoa’s Afa Aiono (right) fights for the ball with Oscar Ouma during their group stage match at the Rugby World Cup Sevens (2013) in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, in June.

The Kenya National Sevens team landed at the Gold Coast of Australia from Brisbane on Tuesday and are raring to go ahead of the games this weekend for the first leg of the International Rugby Board Sevens (IRB)Circuit.

The team had pitched camp in Brisbane last week in order to acclamatise and recover from jet lag. They have since progressed well according to team manager Steve Sewe.

The team has also been joined by members who were left in Nairobi last week.

The side had travelled without interim head coach Felix Ochieng, Nakuru flanker Oscar Ouma and Kenya Harlequin winger Sidney Ashioya, all of whom were committed with either work or academic duties.

Speaking to FeverPitch from the Gold Coast, Sewe assured that the team was finally whole.

well prepared

According to the former Mwamba player, the team is well prepared and just need to polish up on some skills.

Sewe went on to add that the team has no immediate plans to play any warm up matches before Saturday, an indication that they are content with the preparations.

Sewe pointed out that they are not training with any other team, as has been the practice in previous years, where Kenya joined with another countries to train and play games.

Kenya faces a tall task this weekend when they play against USA, Tonga and the overall defending champions New Zealand.

New Zealand head into this weekend’s Gold Coast Sevens at Skilled Park as the team to beat.

Speaking to IRB.com, New Zealand player Sherwin Stowers said, “There isn’t too much extra pressure as defending champions, it is important for us to start with a bang and hopefully go one better this year.”

Meanwhile, International Rugby Board)IRB) has announced seventeen referees to officiate at the contest.

No Kenyan referees were picked to officiate in the nine rounds of the IRB series.

South Africa’s Rasta Rasivhenge and Rhys Thomas of Wales were the only two referees named to officiate all the nine rounds.

Kenya Rugby Union (KRU)admitted having no high profile and qualified referees who can officiate at the IRB series.

KRU Chief Executive Officer Jack Okoth said some of their qualified referees have been beaten by age.

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