Kenya Sevens stars to play in national circuit

What you need to know:

  • Kenya Sevens players who missed opening leg of the National Sevens Circuit, Driftwood Sevens held in Mombasa at the weekend will be allowed to take part in the second leg of the circuit.
  • The second leg of the circuit, Kabeberi Sevens, will be held this weekend at RFUEA grounds in Nairobi.
  • Before the start of the series, Kenya Sevens head coach Innocent Simiyu had asked national team players to skip the first two legs of the series and to instead attend high performance training in Nairobi.

Kenya Sevens players who missed opening leg of the National Sevens Circuit, Driftwood Sevens held in Mombasa at the weekend will be allowed to take part in the second leg of the circuit.

The second leg of the circuit, Kabeberi Sevens, will be held this weekend at RFUEA grounds in Nairobi. Before the start of the series, Kenya Sevens head coach Innocent Simiyu had asked national team players to skip the first two legs of the series and to instead attend high performance training in Nairobi.

But Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) chairman Richard Omwela has said that it will be prudent for the players to take part in the circuit to allow the technical bench come up with a wider squad, considering that the 2017/2018 season will be big and busy.

Besides the 10 events in the 2017/2018 World Rugby Sevens Series, Kenya Sevens will take part in the 2018 Commonwealth Games due for April 4-15 in Gold Coast, Australia and the 2018 Rugby World Cup planned for July 20 –22 in San Francisco, USA.

A total of 15 players are with the Kenya Sevens team, undertaking a high performance training in Nairobi ahead of the World Rugby Series starting with Dubai Sevens on December 1-2 in the United Arab Emirates.

Omwela said although Kenya Sevens head coach Simiyu had requested that the players skip two opening events of the series, he was of view that they play in all of the six local events.

“We have a long season ahead hence we want to get all the players playing and training together,” Omwela said.

“It’s our desire to have a pool of 30 players to select from, considering that there could be injuries, this being a long season.”