Kenya Sevens rugby team will kick off their 2022 Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens campaign with a match against neighbours and arch-rivals Uganda tomorrow from 12.50pm local time at the Coventry Stadium.

Kenya are in Group D with Uganda, Jamaica and Australia. A total of 16 teams will be contesting for the gold medal. The Damian McGrath-coached side will face Jamaica at 8.58am before winding up their pool matches on Saturday with a clash against Australia at 12.50pm.

New Zealand headlines Group A where they will face off against England, Samoa and Sri Lanka.

Group B consists of African giants South Africa, Scotland, Tonga and Malaysia while Group C features Tokyo Olympic gold medalists Fiji, Canada, Wales and Zambia.

Migingo derby

Kenya and Uganda are expected to set up another ‘Migingo derby’ miles away, where Kenya will be seeking revenge against their neighbour who stunned them to reclaim the Africa Sevens Cup title on their home soil.

Australia on the other end knocked out Kenya in the 2018 edition during the classification semi-finals while in the recent sevens series, the Aussies nailed Kenya 42-0 in one of the legs this year on January 28.

The team is optimistic about a podium finish at the Coventry stadium in Birmingham, England. McGrath insists the goal is to qualify for the knockout stages.

“I think from how we’ve been training for the Commonwealth Games and the mood that I have seen in the camp the team has the experience to make it to the main cup quarter-finals,” former Shujaa captain Andrew Amonde said.

“We need to focus on playing Uganda and then Jamaica and then we book ourselves a quarter-final place. I think the 50-50 game in our pool is the Australia game and it’s the game that will push us to the other level,” added Amonde.

“Transition was something that would happen at some point and I think the boys have done well for the first year they’ve played without the senior players and they’ve learned how the system works,” said Amonde.

“Commonwealth Games is just another learning step for them where for some it will be their first cap in the Games while others will have the third cap so the experience is also a good mixture of that squad and we expect them to perform well and improve the standards of Shujaa,” he added.

In 2014 Kenya reached the plate semi-finals where they lost 28-05 against Wales after losing in the main cup quarter finals 19-07 against New Zealand.