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Former Barthes Cup champions Namibia will miss the 2021 edition in Nairobi after 12 of their players reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.

 Senegal and Madagascar are expected to take part in the Under-20 continental competition with the former already in the country for the event set to start on Saturday, June 26 at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi.

The round-robin competition has Kenya Chipu as the defending champions courtesy of a memorable home campaign that saw the team blast teams to dethrone Namibia off a 21-18 win at the KCB Sports Club in 2019.

“The 2020 edition was not played last year and Kenya has the rights to host the event up to the year 2022. It is great to see the tournament return to Nairobi,” said Kenya Chipu team manager Tony Mutahi.

 “The mood is right to charge at another title. We have worked hard and have been in camp in Nakuru twice and Nairobi twice and we have seen the boys greatly improve. We have also had two pre-tournament friendly matches and we won both against KCB (15-10) and Mwamba (12-10) where we were basically looking at the structures,” Mutahi told People Sport.

“It would have been better playing with our 24th player who is the fan but we are prepared to play in an empty stadium,” he added.

 The 2021 Under-20 Barthes Cup is set to usher in the 2021 Rugby Africa season here in Nairobi.

Kenya Chipu under coach Curtis Olago are scheduled to defend the title against Senegal and Madagascar where fixtures will be updated to have one match played a day for the three days of tournament in the absence of Namibia.

 Namibia was expected in the country on Monday.