Kenya Under-20 face schools select side in warm up tie today

[Courtesy]

National Under-20 rugby team, Chipu will face a secondary schools select side today in a bid to gauge themselves ahead of their participation at the 2019 World Junior Trophy tournament in Brazil next month.

The warm up tie is scheduled to kick off at 1pm at the RFUEA Grounds with Chipu head coach Paul Odera keen to test his systems against the students who have been drawn from 12 schools across the country.

The schools Select team, which is handled by Dagoretti High coach Victor Walgwe, was picked from this year’s Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association national games in Mombasa. 

“The match will be useful for the players in terms of their match fitness since most of them have not been playing competitively for quite a long time. We also want to see if they can put into practice what we have been doing in training as we test our systems both in defence and attack,” Odera told Standard Sports.

Odera, who is also the national senior men’s 15s coach has not ruled out including a host of the secondary school players in his Brazil-bound team should they impress in the warm-up tie.

“We have already picked players from clubs and universities and now we want to have a look at what the high school students have to offer. If we are convinced that one or two of them have national team quality then they will be drafted,” Odera said.

“They have been responding well to the sessions.”