Fresh from securing 10 points in Wellington IRB series, the Kenya Sevens Rugby Team has arrived United States ahead of the Las Vegas IRB series.

Another Litmus test waits in Vegas, once regarded as the hunting ground for Shujaa and the boys are optimistic the road to redemption is on the right path.

For the first time this season, the national side played in the main cup quarter finals in Wellington where they lost to South Africa and former coach Benjamin Ayimba believes the team has shown signs of improvement.

“They played extremely well, the Kenyan way of playing is back, maybe the concern is more guys on line out so that we can maintain it” Said Ayimba.

“All the other areas were OK, racks were taken care of, the scrums were looking stable, now if we can solve that issue of line out, we will be on track” He added.

Ayimba started the resurgence of the sevens team years back and he remains confident they will improve from their current position. The former coach hailed the impact of returning players who missed the last three series.

“We are using Collins Injera very well as a play maker as opposed to the finisher, let Billy Odhiambo and Oscar Ayodi do the finishing” said the former coach

“We are quite on track; I like the fact that Sikuta is getting more confident, if only he could work on his team defense, off course Lavin Asego is doing his bit to be the leader in the midfield, so generally the team has improved” He added

Kenya is currently placed on 12th place in the IRB standings with 21 points and Ayimba says they need another ten points in Vegas.

In Vegas Kenya will play Wellington runners up England, Argentina as well as Canada in Pool B and Ayimba says we should target another quarter final spot.

“That’s quite a tough pool for everyone, remember Argentina beat us in New Zealand, then there is Canada who were meant to play well but did not perform in Wellington and then there is England who never want to show any of their weakness” said Ayimba.

Kenya will open their group B campaign with a match against Canada on Friday at 4.50am before playing Argentina at 7.46am. Their final match against England will be on Saturday at 12.30am

The national side will need to win their first two matches to ensure they book another quarter final slot before paying England.

Local Timings for Las Vegas Sevens

Friday

Kenya vs. Canada 4.50AM

Kenya vs. Argentina 7.46AM

Saturday

Kenya vs. England 12.30AM

Photo Credit : Kenya Sevens