Kenya Simbas go hunting in Namibia

Battle lines are drawn as Kenya Simbas take the battle to hosts and defending champions Namibia in the Africa Rugby Cup Division 1A at the Hage Geingob Stadium, Windhoek Saturday afternoon.

The two teams goes into the duel, boosting of inspiring victories in their opening matches and the overall champions are most likely be decided after the match with only one round of matches remaining.

Kenya Simbas roared to the top of the log in Africa Rugby Cup ahead of Namibia on points aggregate after their imposing 61-15 victory against Zimbabwe Sables on Saturday. Namibia beat Uganda 40-31 in their opening match in Kampala on July 2.

NAMIBIA WON

Last year, Namibia edged Kenya and Zimbabwe 46-13 and 80-6 respectively to retain Africa Rugby Cup, there fifth Cup success.

The Jerome Paawater-coached Simbas, who won the title in 2011 and 2013, arrived in Namibia on Sunday in readiness for clash and deputy coach Dominique Habimana said at a training session on Wednesday that they were taking the match seriously as cautioned his charges against complacency after the Harare victory.

Kenya’s success against Zimbabwe was also due to an intensive preparation period, which saw them winning two international friendlies over the past two months.

On June 4 they comfortably beat Uganda 48-10 in Kampala and a fortnight later they beat Brazil 18-17 in the northern Brazilian town of Macapa.

Kenya’s dangerous backline was in impressive form with centre David Ambunya and left wing Dennis Muhanji scoring two tries each, while they ran in a total of 10 tries, with forwards and backs all contributing to the scoreline.

With no injury worries after the recovery of Impala lock Simon Muniafu, who had a knock during the Zimbabwe match, Habimana declared their readiness.

“Muniafu has been training with the team and the boys are fired up and focused on the job,” said Habimana. “We have been working very hard to improve our performance away after we lost all our away games last year.”

Habimana said the squad remains unchanged and are looking forward to an exciting match.

“Going from what we saw in Kampala from both Kenya and Namibia’s matches against Uganda, it’s going to be a very exciting game - very physical but also very creative, so I think it’s going to be a fantastic game to watch,” he said.

Namibia coach Phil Davies however told The Namibian that they gave a good account of themselves having posted impressive good results just like the Kenyans.

“Kenya have beaten Uganda, Brazil and Zimbabwe, so they’ve got three good wins behind them. But we’ve been to Romania for the Nations Cup and won two out of three games against European opposition which was really good, so I think both teams are in good form,” he said.

Davies said he expected a tough battle, but they were up for the challenge.

“We know we are in for a massive challenge - it’s the biggest game of the season for us, but we are ready to play. I think we will see a very good match, the players and I are all looking forward to it and hopefully there will be a big crowd on Saturday,” he said.