Daunting task for Kenya Sevens in Hong Kong
What you need to know:
- Among the senior players who will be in action for the first time this season are former skipper Andrew Amonde, skipper Jeff Oluoch, Nelson Oyoo, Augustine Lugonzo, Dan Sikuta and Bush Mwale.
- Eden Agero, who captained the team in Dubai and Cape Town before staying away, is also back.
Despite the return of some key senior players, Kenya Sevens still face an uphill task when they face Cape Town and Hamilton Sevens champions Fiji in their opening match at the Hong Kong Sevens on Friday.
Kenya Sevens, who are chasing their first main Cup quarterfinals appearance this season, meet the Olympic champions at 2:37pm.
Paul “Pau” Murunga’s charges will then meet World Champions New Zealand, who also have two wins from Dubai and Sydney, at 7:51pm.
Kenya, the 2016 Singapore Sevens champions, will then wrap up their Pool “C” outing against Australia, who have only missed reaching the main Cup once this season, at 11:33pm.
Shujaa, who are flirting with relegation, go into the seventh leg of the World Series in 14th place with 18 points, while All Blacks are second in the Series with 106 points after winning the fifth place in the previous leg of Canada, beating England 26-19 in the final.
Fiji are placed third in the Series with 101 points after they claimed bronze in Canada, beating USA in the play-off for third.
Australia are placed sixth with 65 points after they staged their worst performance this season in Canada, where they settled for the Challenge Trophy after beating hosts 35-21 in the final.
The Aussies' best show this season came in the opening leg of Dubai, where they lost to England 15-14 in the play-off for third spot.
Kenya has met the Fijians thrice this season, losing in both occasions in the preliminary round, 43-12 in Dubai, 38-7 in Cape Town and 36-12 in Canada.
They have met Australia once in the Challenge Trophy quarterfinals in Canada, where they went down 47-7.
Whether Kenya will manage a repeat performance from last season's Hong Kong Sevens remains to be seen. Kenya reached the main Cup final, before losing to Fiji 24-12.
Murunga is confident of good results having worked on the team’s combinations and team play in view of finding the right tone between the old and young players.
“There is no team that is easy for us and we have to fight hard to get a win. No team is unbeatable, hence we also have to play to win.”
Murunga said his target is to collect 10 points from Hong Kong moving on to the next legs in Singapore, Paris and London.
“We haven’t achieved that yet and it’s not impossible to get that ,” Murunga explained.
“We have seen teams coming from winning only one game in a tournament, to getting in the final in the next tournament.”\
Among the senior players who will be in action for the first time this season are former skipper Andrew Amonde, skipper Jeff Oluoch, Nelson Oyoo, Augustine Lugonzo, Dan Sikuta and Bush Mwale.
Eden Agero, who captained the team in Dubai and Cape Town before staying away, is also back.
Kenya Seven's Fixtures
Fiji v Kenya (2:37pm)
Kenya v New Zealand (7:51pm)
Kenya v Australia (11.33pm)
