Shujaa mark improvements in Dubai

Kenya men’s national sevens head coach Innocent Simiyu was left delighted with how his Shujaa side performed in the just concluded Emirates Invitational Sevens double header tournament. After dropping out from the main cup in the quarter final stage, Shujaa went on to beat neighbours Uganda 36-5 in the plate final to finish in fifth place in the second tournament that concluded yesterday.

The head coach revealed how happy he was with the team’s improvement especially in defence, an area that had proven to be an achilles heel so far. Simiyu also praised the boys’ determination to put things right after dropping from the main cup.

“We are happy with how the boys played in the last two weekends. It was unfortunate how we executed against Chile- we have been having some small simple unforced errors in our game which proved to be costly and unfortunately we lost in the quarters. But generally, we have improved a lot on our defence and breakdown. It is very good how the boys responded after that, managing to put in five tries versus Spain before sealing the tournament with a 36-5 win over Uganda,” he stated.

It was double delight for Shujaa who ended the tournament with a second win over Uganda in two days, beating them 28-10 in day one before winning 36-5 in the Plate final.

Shujaa now go into rest mode and will resume training on 18th April where they go into camp at Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani in preparation of another Invitational tournament that is scheduled to take place in South Africa.

Collated Scores

Day One

Shujaa 28 – Uganda 10

Shujaa 21 – Canada 10

Shujaa 17 – Spain 14

Day Two

Cup QF: Chile 14 – Shujaa 12

Plate SF: Shujaa 27 – Spain 15

Plate Final: Shujaa 36 – Uganda 5

Kenya Lionesses on the other hand ended the campaign in sixth place after failing to manage a win. Head coach Felix Oloo however commended the ladies on the improvements made by the women’s side.

“I have to thank the players for their ability to give the big teams a run for their money. When you compare our scores in Madrid to these ones, the improvement is impressive. We still have to work on our kick offs, as it stands we’re at 60% and it needs to get higher before the Los Angeles tournament in June,” said Oloo in Kenya Rugby Union’s website.

Collated scores

Day One

Canada 22 – Lionesses 5

France 31 – Lionesses 5

Japan 10 – Lionesses 10

Day two

Lionesses 12 – Brazil 15

USA 22 – Lionesses 10

Japan 43 – Lionesses 0