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Kenya Sevens take another aim at the elusive Main Cup quarter-finals against tough Group ‘B’ opponents in Vancouver Sevens on Saturday night.
The Kenyans lads will kick off their Group ‘B’ campaign in the sixth leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series against Fiji at 8.30pm Saturday night before turning their guns to Samoa on Sunday at half past midnight, and complete their group games with a tie against Canada at 3.40am.
Coach Paul Murunga will be chuffed with the availability of playmaker Johnstone Olindi who missed Las Vegas leg due to visa complications.
At the same time, Murunga has lost the services of Brian Wandera through injury. Wandera flew back to Nairobi for further assessment and was replaced by Mean Machine’s Shadon Munoko.
In Vancouver, Kenya will be alive to the fact that should Wales or Japan finish above them and the Kenyas fail to reach at least Challenge Cup semis, the team will drop down to the relegation zone. Kenya is currently 13th in the series with 17 points, four better than Wales and five ahead of Japan who occupy the relegation places.
On the pitch, Murunga will rely on the in form playmaker and speedster Daniel Taabu and hard running Vincent Onyala to get the much desired wins. Taabu and Onyala had relatively good outing in Las Vegas as they were ranked fourth and fifth on the Performance Tracker respectively.
With the arrival of Olindi, the team is likely to get forward balls and attack the small spaces as well as create spaces on the outside for Cyprian Kuto and skipper Jacob Ojee to flourish.
Ojee and Kuto have carved their niche as the team’s finishers but need someone to create space outside channels for them to exploit with terrific pace.
Murunga will be wary of the Fijians who were knocked out of Cup quarter-finals in Las Vegas and will be out to register their Cup success to keep in touch with the runaway series leaders USA.
A resurgent Samoa will also pose another tricky hurdle for Shujaa, the team having played in their Cup final last weekend since 2016. Hosts Canada will come out guns blazing as they try to shine in front of their home fans.
Match Schedule:
Kenya v Fiji, 8.30pm Saturday March 9, 2019
Kenya v Samoa 00.30 Sunday March 10, 2019
Kenya V Canada 3.30 Sunday March 10, 2019
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