NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 7 – A head of the new 2017/2018 HSBC Sevens World Series season, Kenya Sevens head coach Innocent ‘Namcos’ Simiyu is upbeat the team will meet the targets set by the Kenya Rugby Union.
Simiyu on his maiden season with Shujaa last season guided the team to 12th position with 63 points only managing to reach two Main Cup quarters in Cape Town and Singapore Sevens.
However, speaking at the team’s residential camp in Nanyuki, Simiyu was confident the performance will improve, expressing satisfaction with the pre-season ahead of the season opening in Dubai Sevens that will take place December 1-2.
“Everything has been good, our pre-season has been good, we’ve been able to condition the players and also improve their skills while bringing in new players who are skilled. It’s a long season, there’ll be ups and downs but we believe we will be able to meet our targets as we have done enough in terms of preparations,” Simiyu said.
Having a pool of 42- man provisional squad, the head coach revealed that the 10-day camp has provided a perfect platform for him to gauge the fitness of his players before settling on his final 18 players who will be contracted by the Kenya Rugby Union for the new season.
“We have been able to try out new things with regard to how we want to play the upcoming series. We are pretty much satisfied with how things have progressed and the new things that we are bringing into our game,” Simiyu asserted.
He added that they have been able to work on their set-pieces and kickoffs that were a letdown last season, hinting that new players might be handed roles to prove themselves at the prestigious competition.
“We have also had the opportunity to try new players at a higher level in terms of the intensity that we are operating at. There are some good players that we will perhaps see coming into the team while will probably be an advantage to us as it helps sort out issues related to some areas we’ve been having with the set-piece, particularly the kickoffs and line-outs,” he said.
“It also gives us some dynamics in terms of firepower. What’s next for us is the Safland Sevens, hopefully we can test the new combinations and players at a higher level at the competition phase and once we are done with Safland we’ll be ready to go to Dubai.”
A blend of youth and experienced players have been selected for the Safland Sevens that takes place on the weekend of November 11 in Namibia.
With a batch of players heading out to Namibia for the Safland Sevens, Simiyu still has a large squad to work with ahead of the camp’s conclusion on Friday, November 10.
