Odera proud of Kenya Simbas team that is eighty minutes away from making history

The men’s national rugby 15s head coach Paul Odera has praised the Kenya Simbas for collectively putting themselves in a position to qualify for the prestigious Rugby World Cup tournament for the very first time in the country’s history.

In the eight team 2022 Rugby Africa Cup being played in France from 1-10 July, a showpiece that doubles up as the African qualifying tournament to the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Simbas successfully navigated the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the knockout competition to set up a finale against Namibia on Sunday evening at the Stade Maurice-David.

Rugby World Cup Q: Kenya into finals after edging Algeria in nail-biting encounter

After defeating eternal rivals Uganda 42-7 in the quarters then picking a testing and hard fought 36-33 victory over Algeria in the semis, it now means that the match against Namibia is the only stumbling block that stands between Kenya and a historic place in the World Cup.

Speaking after Kenya managed to see off Algeria, Odera expressed how proud he is in the job done by the team to give themselves a chance to qualify.

“Mine is so much joy, we are one game away from coming back to France in 2023 which is huge. So proud of the team, just enjoying the win. We regroup, we recover and then we go again. The boys do realize that it is just 80 minutes away from making history as the first Simbas team to qualify for the Rugby World Cup,” the coach said.

The head coach also lauded the team’s character against Algeria as they came from behind to win the match and managed to contain the pressure when the North Africans threatened to steal victory.

“We struggled a bit in the set pieces but we have to give credit to them (Simbas). Every time Algeria came back at us we were able to get ahead. Algeria, as expected, were going to be a tough opponent. They were always going to put us under a lot of pressure in the forwards,” he noted.

Rugby World Cup Q: Asati hopeful of upsetting Namibia in final

The winner of the final is assured a direct ticket to the World Cup while the loser has to go through a final four team qualification tournament scheduled to take place in November.