Barthes Cup: Wambua pinpoints areas of improvement ahead of Namibia clash

Kenya Under 20 rugby side, Chipu steamrolled over Uganda 54-20 to seal a place in the semi-finals of the 2022 Barthes Cup but Kevin Wambua who is part of the coaching staff has pinpointed areas of galvanization.

The two neighbouring nations renewed their rivalries in the Barthes Cup as Kenya started their title defense on a high after winning the two previous editions that have been staged in the country.

Wambua who doubles up at the Mwamba RFC head coach noted that set pieces are an area that needed tightening on the loose ends despite the impressive display on Saturday.

“I think they played well, putting in 50 points was not easy but that being said we still have a lot of things to do, we got penalized on the break down when going forward.

We had a good scrum so definitely more scrummaging this week before Wednesday and just trying to improve our set pieces and also the line outs,” said Wambua.

Kenya were dominant on scrum as they won almost all their contests with the line outs also executed to perfection in the quarter final clash.

Chipu however struggled to break down Uganda in the first half that ended 11-10 as they were penalized for a number of infringements in the five metre line.

Barthes Trophy 2022: Kenya Chipu advance to cup semis after thrashing win over neighbors Uganda

“We had issues in the first half because our recycling speed was slow and any time we tried to run the ball the Uganda defence was on our face.

We made a tactical change and brought in a new nine, we talked to the boys on the rack speed we wanted in the second half and it showed in the results,” added Wambua.