Shujaa in race against time to register players ahead of Dubai 7s

With a month left until the Dubai 7s which is traditionally the opening leg of the HSBC World Seven Series, the Kenya Sevens men’s national team, Shujaa is facing a race against time to have players registered.

Shujaa are in blistering red hot form after reclaiming the Safari Sevens a title they last won back in 2016 and finished third in last season's World Series following spectacular performances.

Shujaa head coach Innocent Simiyu revealed that 14 players are yet to put pen to paper on their contracts with the deadline set on Tuesday 2 November. 

"We are narrowing down on the final 24, we have already issued contracts to the first 10 players, we have 14 to go which we have to close by Tuesday this week, it's going to be tough but I believe we have selected the best players according to the training performance and history and also the performance of the Safari Sevens,"

"All in all to get the teams to this level is not easy, we have to thank those who are supporting us especially KRU as the custodian of the game, the Ministry of Sports, the government for being there for the team, it's been a long journey and of course the Kenyan fans who are always with the team," said Simiyu. 

Shujaa’s only blemish in the Safari Sevens was the loss to Germany in the Pool encounters but failed to blow away opponents as they registered narrow wins over Uganda, Morans and Germany.

With the Kenyan teams registered for the tournament performing well, Simiyu was delighted with the pool of talent in the country as he faces a nightmare to select players. 

"We are impressed with the talent, we go back to selection because if you look at the young boys who played in Morans, Samurai and KCB some of them were quite impressive and we will go assess and see who will call up for the season,"

"Germany are a good side, they have been knocking on the World Series for a while and if look at the last quarter-final with them at Edmonton, it was a tight game and the game on Saturday was also the same, we always know they have a comeback in the end so they were worthy opponents," added Simiyu.