From South African camp to Kakamega; Kenya XV's Rugby plans falter big time

National rugby 15's side, Kenya Simbas, will not be heading to South Africa (SA) for a ten-day residential camp that had been planned as part of their preparations ahead of their Rugby Africa Cup slated for July 3 and 9 in Nairobi. 

From the provisional squad of 102 named by coach Paul Odera that began training virtually before commencing physical camp, three weekends ago, a final list of between 30 and 40 players was scheduled for the June 11 to 21 trip to SA before returning home for a local camp ahead of the showpiece.

"The plan was to have the team in a local camp from June 5 as we make travel plans to SA. We had our weekend residential training as usual but no confirmation has been given on the trip and given all the preparation we have to do before travelling to S.A, that including getting Visas and Covid-19 testing, I am convinced the camp is off. It would have been for us to have this ahead of the competition as we need all the resources available there to get the team in shape for the matches ahead but we now have to shift our focus to any alternatives," said coach Odera. 

Sleepless nights for Kenya XV's coach as World qualifiers beckon

The team is likely to travel to Western Kenya in the coming weekends where they are scheduled to take on Kabras RFC in a test match that will help the technical bench gauge the players' preparedness for the task ahead. 

"From the last calibrating weekend, one could tell the players are in a much better place in terms of match fitness. We always have a review on individual player performance, based on video analysis, after each weekend but even without the full statistics, we are getting somewhere. We have a big pool of talented athletes and now the onus is on us to mould them into the Rugby players we want," added Odera. 

On paper, Simbas are the favourites from the group and with two teams proceeding to the next stage of qualification, the Kenyans will need to live up to expectations to keep their World Cup debut alive. 

Kenya came close to realizing their Rugby World Cup dream three years ago when the team qualified for the repechage tournament in Marseille as Africa 2. However, Simbas lost each of their three matches to Canada, Hong Kong and Germany. Coach Odera is hoping to guide the team to automatic qualification as the top team in Africa.