Poor fitness cost Kenya in Dubai, Cape Town, says Innocent Simiyu
What you need to know:
- Kenya 7s coach also points to defence, ball reception as areas to work on before team leaves for New Zealand
Kenya Sevens coach Innocent ‘Namcos’ Simiyu has said lack of fitness, poor kick-off reception and shaky defence cost his team a good run in Dubai and Cape Town, the opening legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series.
However, Simiyu said that his charges exceeded most of his expectations, considering that the team only trained for five weeks, one of which was affected by a strike over allowances.
Simiyu, who was handling the team for the first time as head coach, praised his team for an improved attack, scoring and rucking in Cape Town last weekend.
Kenya Sevens finished sixth in Cape Town to collect 12 points after they lost 33-21 to Olympic champions Fiji in the fifth place play-off. In Dubai, Kenya lost to USA 21-19 in Challenge Trophy semi-finals to collect five points.
The performance in Cape Town saw Kenya climb one place to 10th with a total of 17 points from the two legs heading to Wellington Sevens next month.
“There are areas we need to improve on but I am satisfied with the performance based on the benchmark set. We wanted 20 points from the two legs but we fell short by three points and that shows that we are on the right track,” said Simiyu.
Simiyu said he would review two legs in two ways; what worked well and which needs to be managed and what didn’t work for the team which needs tightening.
“Our attack and scoring were good as we scored some of the beautiful tries in Cape Town where our execution improved,” said Simiyu.
Simiyu said the level of fitness let down the player, noting that their kick-off reception was too proactive. “We should have beaten Fiji easily in the pool stage were it not for the two tries we conceded from kick-offs,” said Simiyu. Kenya lost to Fiji 28-22 in the pool stage in Cape Town but beat France and Japan 33-14 and 24-5 respectively to make the main Cup squatters.
Simiyu noted that good defence is dependent on fitness and it is an area he intends to fix before Wellington Sevens where they face Cape Town champion England, Argentina and Papua New Guinea.
“We were only in training for four weeks. Ideally we need a period of between eight to 12 months in training,” said Simiyu.
The team will reconvene on December 19 before breaking on December 23 for holidays. The players will be back in camp on January 4 for the next leg of Wellington Sevens and Las Vegas in January and February respectively.
