Kenya Simbas dare to dream as quest for World Cup slot begins

The national rugby 15s team, Kenya Simbas, hope that memories and lessons from the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifiers will inspire them to victory at the 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifying Repechage tournament set for November 11-23 in Marseille, France.

During the 2014 Africa qualifier for the 2015 Rugby World Cup held in United Kingdom, Kenya stunned Namibia 29-22 but the Simbas would later lose to Zimbabwe 28-10 in a match where they only needed a bonus point to qualify for the World Cup.

While Namibia would top the championship to join automatic qualifiers South Africa for the 2015 World Cup, Zimbabwe that finished second got a second chance to qualify from the Repechage but failed.

NINE RETAINED

The Simbas squad that left Wednesday evening for Romania where they will play a friendly with the hosts before proceeding to Marseille, has nine players from the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifying squad.

They are the current skipper Davis Chenge, Martin Owillah, Tony Onyango, Wilson K’Opondo, Oliver Mang’eni, Joshua Chisanga and Moses Amusala. Others are Kenya Sevens stars Andrew Amonde and Collins Injera.

They will launch their quest against Canada on November 11 before meeting Hong Kong on November 17. The Simbas will wrap up their campaign against Germany on November 23.

The winner of the round robin competition will secure a ticket to compete against New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and Namibia in Pool B of next year’s tournament in Japan.

Chenge said unlike during the 2014 qualifiers, they have blended with the five Kenya Sevens players in the squad.

“We had little time to bond with them and the chemistry wasn’t there and perhaps that was one of the main undoing for us,” said Chenge. “We have had them for almost two months and it feels great.”

'A LOT HAS CHANGED'

Owillah, 28, said that a lot has changed since 2014 and believes that the team has gained more exposure and experience what with their skill level and strength having improved immensely.

“We have a good blend and an amazing balance and the sevens players will help us in terms of depth and strategy,” said Owillah. “We almost qualified in 2014 and this is the time again.”

“Repechage is a good platform to prepare us even more. The atmosphere and high temperatures expected in Marseille is what will make us grow,” said Owillah.

Amonde said that the differences between 2014 and now is that they are going to face well-prepared European and Asian sides that have played several build up matches while Kenya Simbas didn’t have that luxury.

“We are taking to Marseille our strong hearts and self-belief,” said Amonde. “If everything goes well as planned, we are bound to stun many and qualify for the Japan World Cup.”

Onyango, 27, said they expect a tough tournament since their opponents are more or less the similar to Namibia in terms of structures of play. “We are bound to surprise many just like the way we almost did in 2014 but the only challenge is after we failed to get some build up matches,” said Onyango.