Simbas face crucial do or die second test against Portugal

The men's national rugby 15s side Kenya Simbas take on Portugal on Saturday afternoon in their second game at the Rugby World Cup 2023 Final Qualification Tournament (The Repechage) currently ongoing in Dubai hoping to keep alive their hopes of getting the single available ticket to France.

The Paul Odera coached side were handed a heavy 68-14 defeat against the USA in their opening match last weekend and need at least a win to have any hopes of making a first ever World Cup tournament in their history.

In the upcoming match, there are a total of twelve changes made with highly rated youngster Amon Wamalwa handed his maiden debut as he starts at fly half while 19 year Joshua Weru, who came off the bench for a try scoring debut in Sunday’s loss, makes his first full start for the Simbas at number eight in place of Bethuel Anami who is rested for this fixture.

The duo are among eight changes to the side that started Sunday’s opener against the USA with the others being Edward Mwaura and Teddy Akala in the front row, Brian Juma at lock, Martin Owilah in the back row, Brian Tanga at scrum half, Beldad Ogeta and Timothy Omela on the wings.

Samuel Asati moves from scrum half to fullback in one of two positional changes, the other seeing Thomas Okeyo shifted from lock to blindside flank.

Malcolm Onsando captains the side in the absence of Daniel Sikuta who is also rested for this fixture after suffering a concussion in the clash against the USA.

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Peter Kilonzo, potential debutant Clinton Odhiambo, Samson Onsomu and Ian Masheti are introduced to the match day squad for the first time in this tournament and will start from the bench alongside Eugene Sifuna, Andrew Siminyu, George Nyambua and Geoffrey Okwatch who all featured on Sunday.

Ahead of the game, Simbas assistant coach Mike Aung explained the team selection and how they hope to bounce back from the opening defeat.

"We have done some squad rotation compared to the first match. The game against the USA was a physical one so we have gone for slight rotation in the squad. We have gone for a quicker pack and backline as well," he said.

"Obviously, we have seen their back three in action, that was quite useful. We’re looking to try to mitigate that, focusing on our strengths. We want to make sure that we reduce the amount of possession that they they have. So we can keep the ball more,"

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"In terms of our our preparations, we didn’t have any warm-up matches. So we felt that in that first game against USA we scored two very good tries.

Lot of our play was a little bit rusty, we didn’t have that fine edge.

So we talked a lot about that, and through training we have corrected some of those errors of that first match, and I feel that we’ve got now the game plan and the right mindset heading to this next match so I think you’ll see a big improvement in that sense," he said.

The clash against Portugal takes place at 3.00pm EAT.

Simbas v Portugal

15.Samuel Asati, 14. Timothy Omela, 13. Bryceson Adaka, 12. John Okoth, 11. Beldad Ogeta, 10. Amon Wamalwa (debut), 9. Brian Tanga, 1. Edward Mwaura, 2. Teddy Akala, 3. Ephraim Oduor, 4. Malcolm Onsando (captain), 5. Brian Juma, 6. Thomas Okeyo, 7. Martin Owilah, 8. Joshua Weru REPLACEMENTS 16. Eugene Sifuna, 17. Andrew Siminyu, 18. Ian Masheti, 19. Clinton Odhiambo (debut), 20. George Nyambua, 21. Samson Onsomu, 22. Peter Kilonzo, 23. Geoffrey Okwatch

RESTED: Patrick Ouko, Bethuel Anami, Daniel Sikuta, Darwin Mukidza, Jacob Ojee, Geoffrey Ominde, Joseph Odero, Brian Waraba