Youthful Shujaa set sights on Challenger 7’s Series and Paris 2024 Olympics
Kenya Sevens assistant coach Louis Kisia believes the current squad has what it takes to regain promotion to the 2024/25 World Sevens Series and be competitive at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in August.
The two tournaments will define the year for the young and robust outfit after the 2023 roller-coaster campaign.
Kisia admitted that when the current technical bench was appointed in August, the morale in the team was at an all-time low following the relegation from the Worlds Seven Series.
We had to pick up the boys and motivate them. We told them it was not the end of the world and there is an opportunity to bounce and qualify for the Olympics and Indeed, we will be in Paris Games, he noted.
Kisia, who is also the Strathmore Leos head coach, said their second plan was to change tack and bring back the culture that was missing from the team for the last couple of years.
We needed to play Sevens the right way. This included training them on how to capitalize on open spaces and minimize physical contact. We also told them to express themselves and enjoy the game, he observed. Kisia said the young squad is fearless but will have to take it one step at a time.
It’s a very young squad. The only experienced players in the team are the co-captains Vincent Onyala and Tony Onyango alongside Brian Tanga. The rest of the players are making their debuts and have great potential to take the team to great heights in the next few years, Kisia revealed.
The former Mwamba coach said in the long term, the second-string Morans will have to play satellite Sevens tournaments to complement the work done by Shujaa.
Most of the top nations in Rugby Sevens have feeder programs to the various national teams and we need to start immediately if we are to stay competitive for the long term, he added.
On matters Olympics, Kisia said they are going to the Olympics to compete and not just to participate. It’s an honor to represent the country at the Olympics, which is the highest pinnacle of the sport. We want to do Kenya proud.
Shujaa were relegated in May after a 20-year stint in the World Sevens Series after losing to Canada 12-7. They start their quest to return to the top table of Sevens rugby with the Challenger Series in Dubai next weekend.
This will be followed by tournaments in Montevideo, Uruguay (March) and Munich, Germany (May). The final tournament will be in Madrid, where the top four teams from the Challenger Series will face off with the bottom four teams from the World Seven Series.
Shujaa, however, redeemed themselves by qualifying for the Olympics for the third time in history after beating South Africa 17-12 in the final during the qualifiers held in Harare, Zimbabwe.
