K'Opondo: Simbas need to improve

What you need to know:

  • Kenya Simbas captain Wilson K'Opondo believes the team will need to work twice as hard to stand any chance of making it to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
  • K’Opondo and his teammates fell to a crushing 45-7 loss away to Nambia in their final 2017 Rugby Africa Gold Cup match at the Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek on Saturday evening.
  • The result saw Kenya fail in their bid to wrestle the cup from the Welwitschias who secured the title for the fourth year in a row.

Kenya Simbas captain Wilson K'Opondo believes the team will need to work twice as hard to stand any chance of making it to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

K’Opondo and his teammates fell to a crushing 45-7 loss away to Nambia in their final 2017 Rugby Africa Gold Cup match at the Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek on Saturday evening.

The result saw Kenya fail in their bid to wrestle the cup from the Welwitschias who secured the title for the fourth year in a row. Namibia ran in seven tries with five conversions against Kenya's converted try. By winning with more than three clear tries, Namibia bagged five points as Kenya left with nothing.

The hosts topped with 25 points after wins against Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tunisia and Senegal as Kenya finish with 16 points, winning thrice and a draw alongside the loss to Namibia. And the skipper believes the team did not stick to script in Windhoek.

“It was a really rough outing and we did not play according to plan, we had some uncharacteristic mistakes which they were quick to capitalize on and they didn’t’ give us anything,” K’Opondo said in his post-match comments after the match.

The skipper admitted his disappointment at not been able to end their losing streak to Namibia despite the team’s efforts. Namibia have won this fixture by scores of 56 – 21 and 46 – 13 in the last two years.

“After the win against Zimbabwe we were looking forward to finishing the job and the result takes the joy out of everything and it is bitter pill to swallow,” he added.

K’Opondo believes they will work on the mistakes and be ready for next year’s qualifiers.

It was Kenya who started brightly, dominating the territory and possession, but Jerome Paarwater's men were simply outclassed as soon as Namibia gained a foothold in front of the home crowd.

David Philander opened the scoring for Namibia with flyhalf Cliven Loubser converting before he did so to fullback Chrysander Botha’s try for a 14-0 half time lead.

Loubser added Namibia’s third but the conversion went out. JC Greyling soon made it 26-0 for Namibia before Moses Amusala crossed over between the uprights for the visitors' only consolation score.

Philander would add his second while tries from Casper Viviers and Lesley Klim made it 43-7 making it hard for Kenya to make any comeback. The Africa Gold Cup concludes on August 5 when Uganda host Zimbabwe and Senegal travel to Tunisia.

All the teams clash again next year with the winner joining South Africa as the second team from the continent at the 2019 World Cup.