Amonde backs Kenya 7s stars to salvage season

Kenya Sevens players pose on February 7, 2017 at Ole Sereni with the Challenge Trophy they won in Wellington. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |

What you need to know:

  • Amonde said lack of concentration resulted to many errors at kick-offs and ball handling in attack and defence during the Wellington and Sydney Sevens legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series.
  • Coach Simiyu said the technical bench will address the high rate of errors and loss of concentration seen in the two legs.

Kenya Sevens team captain Andrew Amonde believes that his charges can redeem their image in the remaining legs of the World Series but only if they step up their game and reduce error rate.

Amonde said lack of concentration resulted to many errors at kick-offs and ball handling in attack and defence during the Wellington and Sydney Sevens legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series.

“The skill level is still there. What led to lack of concentration is, we had players who had not competed in the previous legs coming in, for instance (Collins) Injera and (Oscar) Ouma,” Amonde said.

“There is no doubt about the level of skills in the team. We shall rectify the mistakes going forward.”

Amonde said that it’s unfortunate they didn’t achieve their targets in Sydney and Wellington, falling short by 11 points after they collected only nine from the tour. The results saw Kenya, coached by Innocent Simiyu, drop one place to 11th with 27 points.

Kenya finished ninth in Wellington to collect eight points after winning Challenge Trophy but dropped to 14th place for two collecting points from Sydney.

“We still have six more legs to go hence we need more time to bond as a team,” said Amonde.

Coach Simiyu said the technical bench will address the high rate of errors and loss of concentration seen in the two legs.

“We prepared well unlike the two previous legs in Dubai and Cape Town but failed to click in critical areas,” said Simiyu. “We committed up to five errors in attack and six in defence and it’s difficult to win with such statistics.”

Simiyu said that even though they played better than finalists South Africa and England at the pool stage, they failed to click at the right time. “It’s painful to lose after having created more opportunities and space only for unforced errors to cost us,” said Simiyu.

However, Simiyu said he was impressed with the players’ individual performance and believes that he has a championship team.

Simiyu also noted that team’s fitness level was not up to scratch owing to the little time in pre-season training.

Simiyu said his target now is how his team will improve as they face a tough Pool C that has Sydney bronze medal winner New Zealand, Argentina and Russia in Las Vegas USA due March 3-5 at Sam Boyd Stadium.