L. MathekaOdera plotting face saving exit for terrible Simbas in RWC23 qualification
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Reading Time: 4min | Wed. 16.11.22. | 18:20
This fixture takes place at 4.00pm EAT on Friday.
National rugby 15's side Kenya Simbas are looking to bounce back from Saturday’s heavy defeat as they face Hong Kong in their final Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2023 qualifiers.
Simbas are already out of contention for a place to next year's global championship but coach Paul Odera says they need to muster all the courage to go out and fight for a win.
“It has been tough to pick the players up after the Portuguese score but we have tried to get it to the boys that we need to finish with some pride and dignity and see how we want to be remembered from this repechage.
Obviously it will be historical if we can get a win because no African team has won a game at the repechage in the past," Odera offered.
The tactician has made eight changes to the Simbas starting fifteen as they face off with Hong Kong in their final fixture of the RWC 2023 Final Qualification Tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Friday 18 November.
Odera makes five of these changes in the forwards with Eugene Sifuna, Clinton Odhiambo and George Nyambua starting after coming off the bench in Saturday’s defeat to Portugal while Bethuel Anami and Patrick Ouko returning after missing out last weekend.
Darwin Mukidza, Geoffrey Ominde and Jacob Ojee return to a backline that sees Samuel Asati restored to scrumhalf with Brian Tanga deployed on the wing.
“Everyone has had a chance to play bar one, that is Brian Waraba who is on the bench. It was challenging because there were some players who did put their hands up to show that they can play at this level.
Of course there was a concern about the rustiness, with players not having played for three or four months. There was that difficulty in trying to make a choice on who is going to play and who is not going to play," Odera explained.
Ouko comes back in at loosehead prop, Sifuna comes in at hooker. Ominde who didn’t play in the last game comes in at flyhalf. Asati moves back from fullback to scrumhalf.
The center pairing remains the same but the team lost Brian Juma through suspension after his red card in the last game.
Odhiambo who the tactician says jumped quite well and has been knocking on the door comes in to start at second row with captain Malcolm Onsando.
Ojee returns at the wing while Tanga who started at nine moves to the wing.
"Tanga has really exceptional feet and we hope that he will be as dangerous on the wing. He played on the wing last year up to November, and then we took him back to his traditional nine.
But our backline is struggling, we lost five starting players from the backline who played in July so it is about looking at which combinations can work. Joshua Weru, our teenager, drops to the bench, to see what impact he can bring in," the tactician went on.
Odera believes this will be an interesting match for the Simbas but one they can regain their pride through if they can dig deep.
"Hong Kong are a very physical side. We do expect their physicality. They’ve got a very strong rolling maul and that is something that we need to be very wary of.
We need to make sure that we are playing the game in the right parts of the field and what we have to do is probably be a bit smarter in where we play the game.
We had almost equal possession stats against Portugal but were in the wrong parts of the field, so that’s something we need to be wary of, it’s something that we need to play a bit better.”
If we can get into the right parts of the field and get our players to run from a bit deeper, we will be in with a chance of being competitive in the game," he concluded.
This fixture takes place at 4.00pm EAT on Friday.
Simbas match day squad
15.Darwin Mukidza, 14. Jacob Ojee, 13. Bryceson Adaka, 12. John Okoth, 11. Brian Tanga, 10. Geoffrey Ominde, 9. Samuel Asati, 1. Patrick Ouko, 2. Eugene Sifuna, 3. Ephraim Oduor, 4. Malcolm Onsando (captain), 5. Clinton Odhiambo, 6. George Nyambua, 7. Martin Owilah, 8. Bethuel Anami
REPLACEMENTS 16. Brian Waraba, 17. Andrew Siminyu, 18. Joseph Odero, 19. Thomas Okeyo, 20. Joshua Weru, 21. Samson Onsomu, 22. Peter Kilonzo, 23. Geoffrey Okwach
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