Kenya desperate of a good show in Vancouver to move away from relegation zone
The Kenya sevens rugby team will be seeking redemption as they enter the seventh leg of the World sevens series, the Vancouver Sevens at the BC Place stadium this weekend.
Speakingto Shujaa head coach Damian Mc Grath on phone, the tactician said he was impressed with their performances despite finishing at the bottom of the Los Angeles leg last weekend.
”In Los Angeles, we controlled the possession but we failed to turn that into points and we will be looking at how we improve on our execution this time round in Vancouver. I was more pleased with the first two games against Australia and Fiji.
It was just unfortunate we lost to Fiji after holding them throughout the match while against Japan we missed a crucial conversion that could have sent us to the main cup quarterfinal on points difference,” he told People Sport.
“The cold and wet weather was not on our side and on the second day we had two players left in the hotel because of flu luckily they have had enough rest and we are focused on making a quarter-final appearance in a group we are set to meet Fiji again and it’s going to be a tough group playing Great Britain and Uruguay who shocked big teams in L.A.,” the coach said.
Shujaa will kick off their hunt against Fiji at 10.52 pm this Friday and then rest and await to wrap up pool C contention against Great Britain at 4.54 am and against Uruguay at 11.20 pm on Saturday.
Canada’s weather forecast has pointed out a 70 per cent chance of showers on Friday while Saturday is set to rain before the sun takes over on Sunday thus the 16 participating teams will be braced for another challenging weather.
Shujaa captain Nelson Oyoo said the team was unlucky to miss out of the top eight playoffs in Los Angeles despite controlling their pool games where they had many opportunities.”We were unlucky against Japan, we had many opportunities to win the match and qualify for the quarterfinals but we take it as a lesson and in Vancouver, we will need to execute early and convert our chances to maximum points because our journey to get out of the relegation zone is still on and we have a duty to maintain the Kenyan flag in the world series,” said Kenya sevens captain Nelson Oyoo.
Vancouver will be a three-day adventure for the participating teams where onlyfour matches will be played on Friday. GreatBritain will kick off the tournament against Uruguay before Kenya and Fiji meet to renew the rivalry followed by South Africa vs France and Argentina vs Japan.
New Zealand will headline pool A consisting of Samoa, USA and Spain. PoolB will be a pure rivalry renewal between second-placed Argentina and third-placed South Africa while France and Japan will make the group more interesting.
Vancouver hosts - Canada are just below Kenya on the world standings and willbe braced for tough encounters against Ireland, Australia and Chile in pool D.
