Kenya Lionesses coach outlines plans to boost World Cup qualification

Kenya Lionesses head coach Simon Peter Odongo has outlined the key areas the national women's rugby team must address as they continue their quest to secure a place at the 2029 Women's Rugby World Cup in Australia.

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The Lionesses recently finished second at the Rugby Africa Women's Cup after falling to continental champions South Africa in the decisive encounter.

Despite missing out on the title, the campaign earned Kenya a qualification to World Rugby's WXV competition. This global tournament serves as a crucial pathway towards Women's Rugby World Cup qualification.

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Reflecting on the performance against South Africa, Odongo praised his charges for their resilience against one of Africa's strongest rugby nations.

"South Africa really brought the game to us. It was a closely contested match, but the loss of some of our key players shifted the momentum in their favour, especially given their physicality.

We were without Phoebe Otieno, and Faith Livoi also picked up an injury, which had an impact on our performance," Odongo offered.

The coach noted that the Lionesses showed significant improvement compared to previous meetings with the Springbok Women, who boast extensive Women's Rugby World Cup experience. The match ended 35-20 in favour of the South Africans, but the Kenyans put in a great shift.

"I have to give the Lionesses a huge round of applause because they went toe-to-toe with a team that has World Cup experience and pushed them all the way.

Although we didn't get the result we wanted, this was a much better performance than what we produced last year. That's something positive we can build on moving forward," he offered.

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Odongo acknowledged that while the team largely executed its game plan, the experience highlighted areas that still require improvement.

"We largely played according to our system, although a few things didn't go our way. That's the nature of Test rugby, you are constantly tested, and we knew South Africa would challenge us in many areas.

The ladies took a little time to settle into the match. We managed the first half well, but we didn't settle as effectively in the second half. Those are valuable lessons that we will take away and learn from," he said.

With the continental tournament now behind them, attention shifts to the WXV competition, where the Lionesses will have another opportunity to measure themselves against some of the world's leading rugby nations while collecting valuable ranking points.

Odongo believes Kenya's ambitions of reaching the 2029 World Cup will depend heavily on increasing the quality of domestic competition and exposing players to more international test rugby.

"Now it's back to the drawing board. We need to reassess, restructure, and find ways to make our league more competitive.

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We also need to secure more test matches for the players because that's how you grow. We'll take the lessons from this campaign and continue building towards next year," he averred.

Currently ranked 23rd in the World Rugby Women's Rankings, Kenya remains the second-highest ranked women's rugby nation in Africa behind South Africa.

The Lionesses have three possible routes to Australia 2029. Their most direct path will come through the 2027 Rugby Africa Women's Cup, where they must dethrone South Africa and emerge as continental champions to secure automatic qualification.

Should they once again finish behind the Springbok Women, Kenya can still qualify through the World Rugby rankings by accumulating enough points in official test windows before the end of 2027. The two highest-ranked teams yet to qualify will earn places at the World Cup.

If both routes prove unsuccessful, Kenya's final opportunity will come through a winner-takes-all repechage tournament during the 2028 WXV cycle, where six emerging nations ranked between 13th and 18th in the world will battle for the last available ticket to Australia.