Kenya U20 rugby coach Odera pleased with trialists

A section of players who turned up for Kenya under-20 national team trials at RFUEA Grounds on Sunday. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Odera said that the number of hopefuls looking to make the Kenyan team, fondly known as Chipu, to Barthes Cup was overwhelming.
  • Odera is preparing a team to Africa Under-20 tournament, also called Barthes Cup, set for Nairobi in March.
  • The winner of this tournament will qualify for the 2019 Junior World Rugby Trophy set for Estádio Martins Pereira in São José dos Campos, Brazil from July 9 until 21 July.

Kenya under-20 rugby head coach Paul Odera is satisfied with the quality of rugby displayed by players who turned up for under-20 national team trials at RFUEA Grounds on Sunday.

Odera said that the number of hopefuls looking to make the Kenyan team, fondly known as Chipu, to Barthes Cup was overwhelming. “We had planned for 70 players but we got 180 which is a good problem to have because it shows that we’ve got a good group of young players in the country who want to play,” he told Kenya Rugby Union’s website kru.co.ke.

“What was even better was that the quality of rugby displayed by these players was of a very high standard. In previous years when we’ve been at this stage of preparation, we have normally been struggling to see how we can develop the skills of many of the players.”

Odera is preparing a team to Africa Under-20 tournament, also called Barthes Cup, set for Nairobi in March. The team will be narrowed down before embarking on specialized and intensive training sessions.

“Once the team has been narrowed down, Odera is looking to start his training with three conditioning sessions a week and one half-day camp on Sundays with the locally available players,” KRU said in a statement published on its website on Monday.

Barthes Cup feature the national under-20 teams from Namibia, Kenya's Chipu, Senegal and Tunisia. Chipu kick off their campaign on March 27 against Tunisia while Namibia take on Senegal on the same day.

The winner of this tournament will qualify for the 2019 Junior World Rugby Trophy set for Estádio Martins Pereira in São José dos Campos, Brazil from July 9 until 21 July.

Odera is wary of Tunisians after the two sides met in 2016. “They have very heavy forwards and some dangerous players in the back-line but it is something that we are more than equipped to handle. We’ve got to do our homework, do our research then based on that develop training sessions so that we’re able to deal with these teams,” he said.

He is also confident of beating Namibia for the first time ever after running them close last year in Windhoek. “ If we do play Namibia again, I mean last year we pushed them hard; the score however does not reflect how close the game was. Hopefully this year, if we can get the players mentally, physically and skillfully ready, perhaps we can be able to finally get a positive result against them at this level.”

The provisional team is scheduled to kick off their training sessions later in the week.