Shujaa vow to be the last team standing
Rugby
By
Clement Wekulo
| Dec 11, 2018
Having failed to reach cup quarter finals in Dubai and Cape Town, national Sevens team, Shujaa will now turn attention to the third round of the HSBC World Sevens series slated for next month in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Following a disastrous outing in Dubai, the side under the tutelage of Paul Murunga, put up a slight improvement in Cape Town over the weekend.
They ended a nine-match losing streak by defeating continental rivals Zimbabwe and Canada enroute to a 13th place finish in the tournament and according to captain Eden Agero, the team exhibited the hunger and desire to bag positive results.
"We have had a fairly young squad and the good thing is that they have the hunger to win. As a team, we are picking up vital lessons as we move on to the next tournament," Agero told the Kenya Rugby Union website.
The three points earned in South Africa propelled the side to 14th on the overall standings, above Japan and non-core team Zimbabwe.
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In the opening two rounds, the team paraded five debutants in Johnstone Olindi, Daniel Taabu, Brian Wahinya, Charles Omondi and Vincent Onyalla.
Onyalla was introduced for the Cape Town assignment as a replacement for Jeffrey Oluoch.
With inexperience having been viewed by many as one of the reasons why Shujaa under-performed in Cape Town and Dubai, it will be interesting to see if head coach Paul Murunga will recall some of the seasoned players to bolster the squad ahead of January's assignment.
As a result of their involvement with the national 15s team at the 2019 Rugby World Cup Repechage in France, the likes of Collins Injera, Willy Ambaka Samuel Oliech were automatically ruled out of the opening two rounds of the season while Billy Odhiambo is still recuperating from an injury.
In Hamilton, Kenya has been drawn in pool C where they will tackle Dubai Sevens champions and hosts New Zealand, Scotland and France.
This will be the third tournament on the trot this season that Shujaa will face France in the preliminaries.
The sides faced off at the Dubai and Cape Town tournaments with the Frenchmen winning in both ties.
Kenya will also seek to reverse a 35-14 loss to Scotland.