The Kenya Under-18 rugby trials will be conducted next month at the RFUEA ground.
The trials were to be held this week but with the majority of the players playing for the school teams in the upcoming East Africa Games in Uganda, the trials have been postponed to September 10-14
Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) development officer, Ronald Okoth, said the nine KRU regions will converge for trials and the final team named after the regions play each other.
The regions are Western, Nyanza, Rift Valley ( North and South Rift) Nairobi, Central, Eastern, North Eastern, Coast and North Eastern.
Each region has selected 35 players each but only 23 will be used for the four-day tournament, according to Okoth.
Okoth said with the help of rugby development officers and the head coach Paul Odera, he expects a competitive contest during the next three weeks.
“The talent pool in the country is quite immense. We have several good players across all regions," noted Okoth.
The final 28-man squad will play against their peers from Zimbabwe and South Africa's select side later in the year and at the same time curtain- raise against Uganda Under 18 ahead of the Elgon Cup.
Okoth said they expect several players to be part of the Kenya Under 20 side for next year's Barthes Cup in Zimbabwe.
" I have consulted with Under-20 coach Simon Jawichre and the majority of the players, who played this year, are now older and we want to replace them with the Under-18 players and start our preparations early for next year," said Okoth.
He added the formation of the Under-18 as well as the Under-15 team will be a game changer for Kenyan Rugby.
“ We want these players to play for Shujaa or the Simbas in the future. If we can identify talent now and harness their core skills, then the various national squads will be in good shape in the years to come," said Okoth
Okoth termed the biggest challenge to age-grade rugby to lack of resources and hoped the new Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen could unlock funding from the Sports Fund.
"Our biggest undoing is lack of resources. If we can get the funding, then I believe we can compete with some of the top nations in the world," said Okoth.
