McGrath dreams of replicating Shujaa’s historic Singapore feat

Newly appointed Shujaa head coach Damian McGrath has exclusively revealed that it would be his dream legacy to help the men’s national rugby 7s side to replicate its historic Singapore feat during his reign at the team.

Back in 2016, Shujaa, under the tutelage of the late Benjamin Ayimba, recorded a stunning 30-7 victory over Fiji in the main cup final to win their first ever cup title on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series stage.

That trailblazing triumph has remained to be Shujaa’s only victory on the global stage since then with McGrath keen on steering the team back to the highs they managed in the past.

“Everywhere I have been, I always like to leave somewhere better than when I found it. Whether I last for two years or shorter, I just want to make the team and the players better than when I got there,” the head coach told Mozzart Sport.

“Winning a main cup final on the elite level is what we play for. With all these big teams who have the resources and facilities that we may not have, it makes it harder but we have some good players here that if we get it right, we can be a real challenge.

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Winning the main cup is all on our minds. We try as much as possible not to think about Singapore too much because we are trying to look at the future. We are going to try as much as possible in order to replicate that. Let us see where we will get with that,” he said.

The vastly experienced McGrath who has had coaching stints with Samoa, Canada and Germany replaced the fired Innocent ‘Namcos’ Simiyu back in May 2022 after a disastrous Africa 7s campaign in Uganda.

The head coach officially took charge of the team at the Commonwealth Games where they ended up finishing in seventh place after exiting the competition at the main cup quarter finals. This is after watching the team record last place finishes in Toulose and London.

The Englishman’s next task will be overseeing the team at the season ending Los Angeles 7s this coming weekend before focus shifts to the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens to be held in South Africa from 9-11 September.