Simbas, Valke kick off Currie Cup clash
The Kenya Simbas will this Saturday at the Loftus Versfeld grounds in Pretoria kick off their Currie Cup rugby 15 aside campaign against Valke before meeting Zimbabwe Goshwaks and Downtouch Griffons next.
Simbas head coach Paul Odera revealed his key targets for the national 15s team will include matching their opponent’s physicality, pace and accuracy.
These targets, he noted, are vital for the East African side aiming to make a historic first World Cup qualification when they resume the qualifiers against Uganda in June.
Odera noted that South Africa rugby is built on massive physicality so they are expecting a lot of hard work, mostly with forwards.
“Valke are a very strong physical side and we might find ourselves under immense pressure in the scrum downs. We also have to be very disciplined at the breakdown. The cue here is - can we deal with their pace and accuracy?” Odera quipped
“When you play at the highest level, these two are always a challenge. In last November’s match, the pace and accuracy of the teams we were playing against made it very difficult for us to be successful. They (South Africa) will be availing to us their technical expertise across the board,” he said
The trio of Darwin Mukidza, Elkeans Musinye and Dan Sikuta will skipper the 32-man squad named to fly the flag high against tough opponents.
“We are very much interested in how structures will work and try a couple of combinations because after the Currie Cup it will be a world cup qualifier match against Uganda next and we target positive results,” Sikuta told People Sports.
The Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) chairman Gangla Oduor noted that the national team has no shirt sponsor despite the government’s incentive to give tax relief to corporates sponsoring sporting activities.
“We still don’t have a shirt sponsor but we have been in talks with several parties. We wish to call corporates out to come and take this rare opportunity to be part of the team to celebrate with Kenya Simbas when they qualify,” Oduor said.
He said that the preparations to qualify for a World Cup have taken more than 8 years and that they have all the trust and belief in the team’s performance.
“Kenya Cup teams for example did not only give us players but also allowed us to use the club’s subsidy to fund the Simbas and that is a very gentle gesture,” Oduor told People Sports.
