Former tactician urges national 7s rugby team to kick-off new campaign on a high note

Former Kenya Sevens head coach Innocent Simiyu has urged the national rugby sevens players to kick-start the new season of the World Series on a high note to avoid disappointments endured in the last campaign that saw the Damian McGrath-coached side post dismal results.

According to Simiyu who was succeeded by McGrath, the team should approach the seaon opening Hong Kong sevens with a positive mentality and at the same time urgied the head coach to identify the strengths and weakness of each player heading to the new season.

“The players should simply approach the new season with a positive and winning mentality while the head coach should be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of his players, it is very important to start on a high to announce our presence in the series,” Simiyu told PD Sport.

The national rugby team fondly known as Shujaa is set to kick off their 2022/2023 HSBC Sevens World Series campaign in Hong Kong against Argentina, Ireland, and Canada in Pool D of the first leg of the season.

First leg

The Hong Kong Sevens which will be the first leg in the campaign, will take place between November 4 and 6.

The event will be followed by Dubai Sevens, Cape Town Sevens, London, Singapore, Hamilton, Sydney, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Toulouse respectively.

According to Simiyu the pool for the opening event is quite fair for the Kenyan side, given the experience of players in the unit, who have previously played against the said teams.

“A fair group for the Shujaa side all they have to do is to execute their strategy during the 14-minute grace period and hopefully post positive results because the team has what it takes to prosper this new season,” Simiyu said.

Captained

Simiyu who has been shortlisted for the position of Principal Secretary, is a former player who captained the Kenya national rugby union team and the national rugby sevens team.

Public Service commission had announced the application process which ended recently and shortlisted 477 candidates out of over 9,000 applicants for the recent advertised Principal Secretaries (PS) job position.

In the World Rugby Sevens Series, Simiyu has represented Kenya in 121 matches scoring 321 points.