- The Kenya Simbas have named a squad of 32 for the Currie Cup
- The team will be in South Africa for two and a half months
- The Africa World Cup qualifiers are scheduled for June in France
The national rugby 15s team Kenya Simbas arrived in South Africa on Thursday evening ahead of their maiden participation in the Currie Cup, a step that head coach Paul Odera says will be vital for the team to qualify for next year’s Rugby World Cup.
The Simbas have been invited for the Currie Cup with Odera naming a squad of 32 plauers who will take part in the tournament over the course of the next two and a half months.
“When we got the invite for the Currie Cup, we had a discussion with the chairman (Oduor Gangla) on whether or not to go and also whether had the financial ability to sustain the team there over two months. We could have made the easy decision not to go but then we asked ourselves, where else would we get the kind of exposure and difficult matches as well as high level facilities to train,” Odera said.
The Simbas are gearing up for the African qualifiers to the Rugby World Cup which will be staged in France in June, with one automatic qualification slot reserved.
“This Currie Cup is a step in the direction towards us qualifying for the World Cup. We need competition that’s a lot harder than the opponents we will face in the qualifiers and South Africa will offer us that,” the head coach further stated.
Kenya Simbas coach Odera
He says the most important thing for him will be to come up with a winning outfit that can challenge to win the qualifiers and also build the high level performance of the entire team.
“We might have the best players but if we don’t have the best team it is not going to be easy for us. We are going to try and develop as many players as possible so that by June 11 when we complete the Currie Cup, we will know our best team,” the coach said.
He added; “This is a big step for us to get to the World Cup and I assure all in the rugby fraternity that we will do our best to get us on that flight to France.”
The team to South Africa will be skippered by Darwin Mukidza of KCB, Impala’s Elkeans Musonye and Kabras Sugar’s Dan Sikuta.
Sikuta says the team is looking forward to the opportunity to learn in South Africa and remains confident they will come back home a better outfit.
“We just need to go test our structures and see how far we have come with what we have been doing for the past few months ahead of the Rugby World Cup qualifiers. This will offer as a good build up as a team and we hope for positive results and above all get to a good learning curve and we hope the end result will be Kenya qualifying for the Rugby World Cup in 2023,” said Sikuta.
The Kenya Simbas team in South Africa in a previous tournament
Meanwhile, Toby Francombe and Barry Robinson will miss the tourney due to school commitments while Malcolm Onsando, Michael Wanjala and Michael Kimwele will miss the trip to South Africa due to work commitments.
Veteran Collins Injera has made the cut in the travelling squad, but will join the team down South from May 1 due to work commitment.
Simbas Travelling Squad
Ian Njenga (Nondies), Edward Njuguna (Oilers), Andrew Peter Siminyu (University of Johannesburg), Colman Were(Oilers), Brian Waraba(Kenya Harlequin), Patrick Ouko (KCB), Ephraim Oduor( Kabras), Joseph Odero( Kabras), Brian Juma (Kabras, Oliver Mang’eni (KCB), Thomas Okeyo (University of Johannesburg), Clinton Odhiambo (Oilers), Shem Joseph ( Kabras), George Nyambua (Kabras), Bethwel Anami (Strathmore Leos), Brian Amaitsa(Nondies), Daniel Sikuta(Kabras), Elkeans Musonye( Impala), Samuel Asati (KCB), Brian Tanga (Kabras), Brian Wahinya(KCB), Jone Kubu(Kabras), Andrew Matoka (Strathmore Leos), Timothy Omela(Oilers), Beldad Ogeta(Oilers), John Okoth( Oilers), Vincent Onyala(KCB), Peter Kilonzo (KCB), Derrick Ashihundu( Kabras), Jacob Ojee(KCB), Darwin Mukidza(KCB), Geoffrey Ominde (Oilers)
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