Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) director of rugby Paul Odera wants Shujaa to improve on accuracy in attack and tackle completion in the defence if they are to keep their core status next season.
Kevin Wambua’s charges had a weekend to forget in Vancouver, Canada, last weekend, losing all six matches to finish last in the three-day competition.
They remain ninth on the log with 15 points. The gap between Shujaa, who are ninth and Great Britain, who are eighth on the log has ballooned to 17 points—leaving Kenya with a mountain to climb in the next two tournaments.
Shujaa have to qualify for the Main Cup semifinals in next month’s tournaments in Hong Kong and Singapore to move away from the relegation and promotion playoff spots— a move that looks like a tall order after last weekend’s results.
Odera, who was speaking on CGTN TV, admitted that the team has struggled in attack and defence in the World Seven Series.
“In the attack, we need to improve on the accuracy of our passing because any time we fail to pass the ball well, it slows us down on attack.”
He added: “We are also very dimensional and direct at times and this needs to change. This system was effective in the past tournaments but not any more because many teams have worked out on how to negate that.”
On defence, the former Kenya 15’s coach said: “Our tackle completion rate is low and I believe we are only operating at 50-60 per cent. We need to go to higher— perhaps 80-90 percent and this will cause other teams trouble.”
Shujaa lost 24-0 to Argentina, 33-7 to France and 28-10 to Great Britain in the preliminaries. In the classification matches, Kenya lost 19-14 to Uruguay in the 9th -10 place playoff and in the 11-12 match against Ireland, went down 19-14, bagging a solitary point.
