The caravan that is the world sevens series moves into its penultimate tour over the next two weekends, with stop overs at the most iconic sevens tournament on the planet, Hong Kong, then moving to Japan.
The Kenya 7s had their best outings last time out with a total of 18 points from the Wellington and Vegas legs. With what looks like our strongest 12 this season could we do better in the far east?
The biggest news from the squad is definitely the return of that tall man Humphrey Kayange to the side. Tall returns after a lengthy injury lay off, last time he turned up for the side was during the Commonwealth games. His return adds a ton of experience to the side, and also adds on to the task of managing the older guys in the squad for the technical bench.
The rest of the squad remains as was in Wellington and Vegas with Injera back after missing out in Vegas. Lavin Asego who had a stellar showing last time out will be looking to play another pivotal role here alongside the likes of Andrew Amonde, Dan Sikuta and Michael Wanjala.
For the 40th edition of the Hong Kong 7s, we are pooled alongside USA, England and Wales, pools don’t get any tougher, do they? To put it into perspective we have met these three sides a total of 6 times so far this season, losing all those meetings.
Those six meetings are evenly distributed between the three sides, with Kenya playing each side twice this far. We kick off our campaign against a side we all love or love to hate, depending on who you ask, the USA. The Eagles have been a revelation this season, and sit in 7th spot on the overall log. The two times we’ve met they have beaten us 26-17 in Dubai and 33-5 in PE.
This will be the first meeting between Felix ‘Totty’ Ochieng and his former boss Mike Friday, we need a win here, if for nothing else, just to salvage some pride against a side we used to run rugged only a few months ago.
England welcome back experienced quartet of Dan Norton, Marcus Watson, Dan Bibby and Phil Burges. They are still firmly in the race for automatic Olympic qualification in 5th spot, they don’t have any room for slip ups. Not the very best time to meet the English, our last two meetings ended in 38-0 and 21-14 losses in Dubai and most recently in Vegas, respectively.
Most reckon, including myself, that had we won that game against Wales in Australia, we would have been in a much better place today. Remember that last pool fixture that was supposed to take us to the cup, we were leading 19-17 with a few minutes on the clock, after battling from a 12-0 half time deficit?
Yes that one, we ended up losing 24-19 and our young squad never recovered. The other meeting in SA ended in a more comprehensive 29-5 loss. This is the time we should finally beat a side that has been a bogey of sorts, remember Collo’s incident, in another cup decider last season, it was against Wales.
Making the cup from this pool will be something close to a miracle in itself, the odds are heavily stacked against us. If we are however to pull something out of the proverbial hat, our breakdowns need to be spotless and our defence water tight. We also need to be very effective going forward, as well as retain a bit more kick offs.
In short we need to play an almost faultless game, and if anyone can do it, this side can. I mentioned earlier that we need to manage the work load on some of the older heads in the squad.
Tall and Lavin are not as fit as they were few years back where they could comfortably play 5 or 6 matches over two days. While these two will be pivotal to the side, their management will go a long way in determining how far we go in these two legs.
The local timings for this one are not too harsh so you have no excuse not to support the boys.
Hong Kong sevens fixtures :
Friday 27th March 2015
Kenya v USA – 2.38pm
Saturday 28th March 2015
Kenya v England – 6.12am
Kenya v Wales -10.14am
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KWISHA…Nimeruka Nje!!!
