Kenya Simbas are concentrating on the rematch scheduled for November in Dubai after missing out on automatic qualification to the Rugby World Cup.
The Simbas lost against Namibia 36-0 in the championship match in Marseille, France, failing to earn the automatic berth from the African qualifiers.
Prior to the playoffs, four training camps will be held, according to Simbas head coach Paul Odera. If Kenya wants to be competitive at the final qualifiers, Odera said he thinks the camps will be crucial.
“We hope to start training next month and hope to review some areas which let us down in the match against Namibia,” said Odera.
He said they are focused on enhancing lineout, one-on-one tackles, and attack effectiveness.
“I thought the boys did well in the 20 minutes but we could not execute in attack and Namibia put us under pressure hence we didn’t respond,” he said.
They will also need to work on their kick chase, which damaged them in the final, according to the former national Under-20 coach.
“We deployed several kicks to look for territory but our chase was not good so our kicking game must be better heading to the repechage.”
The Simbas who are ranked 33 will face higher ranked opposition in the USA who are ranked 19, Portugal (20), and either Tonga (18) or Hong Kong (21) in the repechage.
Odera said they have nothing to fear. “If we do solid preparations and play a couple of build-up matches then I have no doubt we will do well,” he added.
The coach was pleased with the forwards’ effort level and performance, especially the tight five throughout the qualifiers.
“Our tight five were amazing in all three matches. I think this is the best we have had as a country because we held our own in the scrum and in open play we to be mobile and win collisions and rugby is won when you have A solid tight five” said Odera.
Before the playoffs, Odera hopes the team will play a few friendly matches. “It’s imperative we play a couple of build-up matches before the repechage to test our systems and address our weaknesses.”
The Simbas competed in the 2019 World Cup qualifying tournament and lost all four of their games to Germany (43-6), Canada (65-19), and Hong Kong (42-17).
