Mwanja confident of Lionesses' abilities ahead of Olympics repechage

Kenya Lionesses’ head coach Dennis Mwanja has expressed confidence in his charges’ abilities ahead of the upcoming World Rugby 7s Olympics repechage slated for the Stade Louis II in Monaco on 21–23 June.

The Lionesses have been placed in Pool A, alongside Argentina, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.

In an exclusive with Mozzart Sport, the former Shujaa star observed that the girls’ game has grown tremendously in recent years, and it was promising heading to the repechage.

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The side missed an opportunity to automatically qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after succumbing to a 12-7 defeat against South Africa in the 2023 Rugby Africa Women’s 7s Cup final played in July 2023 in Monastir, Tunisia.

Kenya still has one last chance to make it to the Paris 2024 Games via the repechage tournament. They trained in Miramas, France for a week, and have resumed residential training to further sharpen their skills.

“We have all it takes. We are glad that the National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) organized for us to train in Miramas. We had a good one-week session and now we have resumed training in Kasarani. Having the girls together will sharpen and improve their skills on all the skills,” he offered.

They also failed to ascend to the HSBC World Rugby 7s Series after suffering a 26-7 loss to Belgium during the final HSBC Challenger Series in Krakow, Poland where they finished fourth to miss a playoff spot.

Despite that, the fierce ladies have set their sights on qualifying for the upcoming Paris Olympics slated for July 26 to August 11. They are drawing motivation from their brothers; Shujaa who qualified for the Olympics and booked a slot in the HSBC World Rugby 7s Series.

“Lionesses are on a growth curve. We had a long-term dream but when we got there (Challenger Series), we realized that it was a circuit we had to work extra hard and that every point mattered. But we had a good feeling, we are grateful for the journey and the growth and we are looking forward to having more depth and exposure so that we can expose our base of players and raise the standards of women’s rugby,” Mwanja remarked.

Since Rio 2016 and the entry of rugby 7s into the Olympic program, no other country apart from Kenya has represented Africa at the Olympics in women’s rugby sevens, with the Lionesses taking part in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

To maintain this impressive run, Mwanja noted that they were building depth in readiness for the upcoming challenges including the 2025 Challenger Series.

“We do not have depth for the women’s team. This year we are building in depth so that next year we take them to the HSBC World Rugby 7s Series,” Mwanja averred.

Meanwhile, in Pool B, Uganda will play alongside Hong Kong, China, Paraguay, and Jamaica, while China, Poland, Mexico, and Czechia have been placed in Pool C.

The pools were drawn on Saturday, 20 April, at an event in Monaco ahead of the crucial final qualification tournament to decide the last remaining men’s and women’s teams to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The tournament will feature 12 women’s and 12 men’s teams, all vying to achieve the ultimate prize of representing their country on the biggest global sporting stage of them all.