Simiyu promises Kenya Sevens youngsters more playtime in World Rugby circuit

With rugby action in the Sevens circuit penciled to resume in September, Kenya 7s head coach Innocent ‘Namcos’ Simiyu has promised to make use of youngsters, whom he terms as the ‘future of the Shujaa national team,’ in the updated Sevens Series.

Calls for a complete overhaul in the team have never been louder in the current set up where many of the players are said to be past their prime. Before hanging his boots, long-serving captain Andrew Amonde was competing in the just concluded Tokyo Olympics at 37 years of age while try-scoring wizard Collins Injera went to the games at 34 years. Russian based athlete Willy Ambaka competed at 31 years old. The trio formed a crucial part of the team that featured in the summer games.

When Shujaa won the Singapore Sevens leg in the IRB Series back in 2016, it was a breath of fresh air and a sigh of relief to the players, coaches as well as rugby fans who had waited for 17 years to witness Kenya win a leg in the prestigious World Rugby Sevens Series.

Many believed that that was a first of the many to come as most of the players in that winning team in 2016, were at their prime. Seven members of that team in Singapore were under the age of 24, and six of them were playing in their first series, a scenario that excited rugby fans in Kenya knowing the future could only be better and brighter.

That has however not been the case as Kenya has been spiraling downwards since then due to a number of factors including new faces not being introduced to the setup. Young guns such as Johnstone Olindi, Vincent Onyala and Jeoffrey Oluoch to name a few have just had brief stints and have not featured prominently.

Speaking in an interview on Sports Check aired on KBC, the former Kenyan player admitted that the team will see a host of new faces from September.

“Going forward, we are going to hand them (youngsters) a lot of playing time because this is their time and they are the future of the team. Can they fit in a structure and play in it? That is what we need to make them do,” he said during the interview.

Shujaa finished in a disappointing ninth place in the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games after losing all its group matches against USA, South Africa and Ireland.

Additional reporting by Citizen TV.