Innocent Simiyu in focus as Kenya 7s woeful season continues

What you need to know:

  • Simiyu has at his disposal the finest crop of Kenyan sevens players seen in recent times. A mix of the exciting new and the tried and tested.
  • After the fifth tournament in Las Vegas last weekend, the exact midway point in the 2016/2017 season, there is precious little for Kenya’s global fan-base to celebrate.

As Kenya’s sevens rugby team continues to under-perform on the IRB World Sevens Series, tough questions need to be asked about the competencies of the technical bench.

Headed by Innocent Simiyu, 34, it does not require too much thinking to see that at the rate Kenya are playing, a season that promised so much at the onset is going to be a huge disappointment.

Simiyu has at his disposal the finest crop of Kenyan sevens players seen in recent times. A mix of the exciting new and the tried and tested.

On their day, the likes of Brian Tanga, Nelson Oyoo, Oscar Ouma, Billy Odhiambo, Andrew Amonde, Collins Injera and Willy Ambaka can hold their own against the world’s best.

After the fifth tournament in Las Vegas last weekend, the exact midway point in the 2016/2017 season, there is precious little for Kenya’s global fan-base to celebrate.

Kenya has 35 series points while leaders South Africa are on 107. At this stage in the 2015/16 season, under previous coach Benjamin Ayimba, Kenya had 52 series points. Kenya’s all-time season’s best was 99 under Englishman Mike Friday, at the end of the 2012 season.

Under Ayimba last season, Kenya ended up with 98 points, after 10 tournaments.

On more than one occasion this season, Kenya has led some of the big guns, only to capitulate later in the match.

For example, last weekend in Las Vegas, Kenya led New Zealand 14-7 at the break and eventually lost 24-14, perhaps proof that the talent exists but with questions raised about the technical input during the match.

By way of comparison, the USA “Eagles” were down and seemingly buried 19-5 in their Main Cup quarters against Argentina in Las Vegas. USA coach Mike Friday, the former Kenya coach, then introduced Maka Unufe in the second half, with Unufe scoring two tries and creating a third for the final 24-19 USA win over the South American “Pumas.”

FINANCIAL MUSCLE

When gaming company SportPesa came on board as shirt sponsors of Kenya’s sevens team seven months ago, replacing Kenya Airways, with their fabled financial muscle, it was hoped and believed their entry would herald the beginning of glory days.

However, the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) seemingly got it wrong from the beginning when they settled on Simiyu.

His appointment was baffling on at least two counts: One, he had zero coaching experience at the global level. Two, he was coming into the team from his desk job as an actuary!

Almost without exception, the core teams on the World Sevens Series replace their head coaches with others who have global sevens series experience. Simiyu had coaching experience in Kenya’s lowly-rated club scene with Impala RFC.

Ideally, he should have been engaged to deputize someone who already had global coaching experience.

Naive in defence and predictable on the offensive, watching Kenya sevens under Simiyu is increasingly becoming an agonising spectacle.

More often than not, our backs have to make do with scraps from their forwards.

Inconsistent team selection also brings out disjointed team play and one cannot help but deduce that Simiyu is yet to determine his best starters or what his game strategy is for any given match.

South Africa’s current success with four out of five Main Cup wins this season, is built on a very simple formula.

Suffice to state for now, the KRU must begin to send out feelers to potential coaches to take us to next year’s World Cup in San Francisco.

Ouko comments on rugby and topical sports issues. [email protected]