Kenya Sevens Coach Paul Feeney Confident Despite Tough Sydney Pool

NAIROBI, Kenya- Kenya Sevens coach Paul Feeney admitted that the Sydney leg of the 2019/20 HSBC Sevens Series will be a tough outing but he remains confident that his side will show the progress they have been making.

Feeney says he expects a tough test for his team when they go up against Hamilton 7s champions New Zealand, Fiji and Wales in Group A at this weekend’s Sydney 7s in Australia.

“The pool is very tough with New Zealand and Fiji and definitely Wales has improved very much.

“I think it is great to have this kind of pools so that we can test ourselves against the best. It is better to face them now and find out where we are as a group,” the tactician stated.

Shujaa finished eighth at the Hamilton leg, having won two matches, lost a similar number and drew one.

Feeney was disappointed with the day one performance where they dropped a lead against England to lose eventually, before a stalemate against minnows Japan.

On the second day, they responded with victory over South Africa, but then dropped the pace in the seventh-place play-off against Argentina, losing a first half lead to go down and finish eighth.

“It will be a great challenge for us and after we find out the good, the bad and the ugly of our game, we will have time to fix our problems and work on our strengths.

“We had a good first half against England but in the second half we couldn’t get our hands on the ball. Against Japan, we let ourselves down by drawing. It was a poor performance from us but we had a meeting that night and I was pleased with the response from the boys against South Africa,” Feeney noted.

Among the players who are also expected to play a vital role for the team in Sydney is Collins Injera who played his 80th tournament over the weekend.

Injera has just returned after recovering from a shoulder injury and showed he still has it with a good performance for the team, cementing his place as the second highest scorer ever in the series.

Meanwhile, Feeney was full of praise for youngster Geoffrey Okwach who made his first tour with the team and said he showed his worth with a good performance every time he was called upon.

Okwach who was on Friday named Kenya’s most promising sports personality was the top try scorer at the Safari Sevens and showed his immense talent having just earned promotion from the junior team, Chipu.

Sydney 7s draw:

Pool A: New Zealand, Kenya, Fiji, Wales

Pool B: France, Argentina, Samoa, South Africa

Pool C: Australia, USA, Scotland, Japan

Pool D: England, Canada, Ireland, Spain.