RUGBY
Frank Rotich 13 days ago

Kenya Shujaa eye top four slot at Montevideo and Sao Paulo

Kenya Shujaa coach Kevin Wambua. [Courtesy]

Kenya Sevens head coach Kevin Wambua has set his sights on a top-four finish as Shujaa gear up for the final legs of the HSBC SVNS 2 series in South America.

Shujaa are already in Montevideo, where the second leg runs from Saturday, March 21, to Sunday, March 22, before moving to São Paulo for the series finale a week later.

A top-four finish would boost Kenya’s chances of qualifying for the SVNS World Championship and keep their promotion hopes alive.

“We have been training as a team for the past three weeks after finishing third in Nairobi,” Wambua said. “We reviewed our performances through video analysis, focused on decision-making and attacking play, and built on what worked well.”

Kenya started the Nairobi leg strongly, winning four of five matches. They defeated Canada 29-12, Belgium 33-0, and Germany 15-10, before beating Uruguay 17-7 and narrowly losing 21-5 to the United States.

“The boys have responded well and made good progress,” Wambua added.

The Nairobi tournament was the first stop of the revamped SVNS Division Two series, featuring six teams per gender across three events.

The top four teams at the end of the series will advance to the SVNS World Championship, facing the leading Division One sides in global tournaments in Hong Kong, Valladolid, and Bordeaux.