It's win or bust for Shujaa as the World Seven Series resumes today with the Hong Kong Sevens in China.
Kevin Wambua’s charges must, at the bare minimum, qualify for the semi-finals for this tournament and the Singapore Sevens next week to avoid the promotioncum-relegation shoot-out in Los Angeles in May.
The team has been underwhelming this season with only one appearance in the quarterfinals at the Cape Town Sevens in December, where they garnered eight points.
Since then, the boys have failed to fire this season, bagging three points in Perth in January and one point in Vancouver last month in arguably their worst performance of the season and sit ninth on the log with 15 points.
Shujaa is 17 points adrift of Great Britain and coach Wambua believes the side must bounce back following the dismal show in Vancouver last month.
“It was a tough tournament, and we never played with the fluency required. Our basic core skills let us down, and so the boys know what to do for this tournament. In Singapore next week, we have tweaked some of our plays to ensure we have a good tournament,” observed Wambua.
The team arrived in Hong Kong on Monday and has had three days to acclimatise to the humid, hot conditions as well as review their opponents for the pool matches.
“We have had a good week of training and polishing up a few areas to get match-ready for the tournament and see weaknesses in our opponents,” noted Wambua.
Shujaa open their campaign against high flying Spain at 6:39 am East Africa time. The Europeans have been the surprise package of the season and they are ranked second on the log with 64 points.
The two sides last met at the Cape Town Sevens in December with Spain winning 14-7. Wambua expects a competitive contest against them.
“They are one of the form teams of the circuit, and it will be a good test for us. I believe there are areas where we can exploit.”
Kenya’s second match will be against Great Britain at 9:23 am. This will be the second meeting in a month between both teams with Team GB winning 28-12.
Shujaa’s final match will be against France on Saturday at 5:16 am. The Europeans outfit have the better h e a d - t o - h e a d record with 19 wins to Kenya’s seven and won the recent meeting in Vancouver 33-7.
