When the Kenya sevens departed for the Commonwealth games, their goal, like that of the other series core sides, was a podium finish.
Opening wins against minnows the Cook Islands and Trinidad & Tobago meant that the side qualified for the Medal quarter finals on Day two, with a match to spare. The last pool match against eventual gold medallists South Africa, saw us lose 20-0 to finish second in Pool B.
That result set up a quarter final match up against the sevens All blacks who had topped Pool A. Trailing 12-0 at the break, we went on to lose 19-7, falling out of the medal hunt. Despite that loss this was in my eyes, our best performance over the two days.
Our biggest misgiving in that match was our failure to convert the chances we created, we shot ourselves in the foot time and again with some basic errors. This, unfortunately been the case the whole of this season against the more established sevens teams.
Up next was Wales in the Plate semi-final, and just like in the game against Wales, we gave ourselves up with some elementary mistakes, eventually losing 28-5.
The performance in the Commonwealth perfectly summarises our run throughout this season. We have shown sparks of brilliance, but against the sevens giants, Fiji, NZ, SA, England, Australia we have struggled. It was always going to be a tough season, with a technical bench taking over with the season already underway.
With no proper pre-season, which was all it took Friday to ‘revolutionise’ this side, we were going to look like a battered force. In fact if you put everything into perspective, the side has actually tried given the circumstances.
Our biggest problem this season has not been that the other sides are better than us, no, it has been that we simply failed to turn up. We looked disjointed for the better part of the season, and with the narrowing margins in the sevens game, you cannot run away with that. That is why the likes of Canada and Wales seem to not only have caught up with us, but leap frogged us in the pecking order.
We can sit here and discuss what went wrong last season, what we did and did not do, blah blah blah, yadi yadi yada. Only one thing matters, the way forward. We are all in agreement that we are not where we want to be, so what should we do to get there?
First the calls of firing Paul Treu, are way off the mark and if we do go down this path, we’d have erased any gains we have made this season and then go through another season of restructuring. That would be a huge risk, with the Olympics just around the corner.
I have heard people say that the current style of play does not suit our strength, which is, we play with flair and look for space rather than preferring direct contact. Quick question, How long have we played that way? And how many titles have we won so far?
I am not saying that we throw away our ‘culture’ in favour of something foreign, but let us be open to new ways of doing things.
We have looked tired and even uninterested through this season, I attribute that to one thing, conditioning. The modern game is rapidly changing, and without the proper strength and conditioning levels, you cannot compete. Speaking to various professionals a side needs between 8-10 weeks to get not only their S&C levels right, but also get the technical aspects right.
The 2014/15 series kicks off on October 11th, how many weeks is that?
Player selection has been another problem this season, does this technical bench have a say on who they want to use? Do we have a selection panel? We have been blessed with an abundance of jaw dropping talent, how are we making sure that this talent finds its way to the national side?
This is for the long term, but we need to start getting this talent as soon as possible, get things right at the grass roots. That way we won’t be over dependant on a limited pool of players.
Back to the now, we have Olympic qualification to achieve. Now that the season is done, the players, technical bench and management need to have a ‘Kamukunji’ look at what worked what did not and the best way to fix it. In some cases last season there seemed to be a disconnect between the playing unit and the technical bench.
Finally I don’t think it is as bad as many people out here would want you to believe. We need to turn this corner, and fast, we have already made strides this past season. Now all we need is hit that consistency note, that we play at the very best of our ability week in week out.
KWISHA…Nimeruka Nje!!!