Lionesses name squad for World Cup qualifiers

Impala Saracens’ Winnie Owino and Ann Njeri have been dropped from Kenya’s women rugby team which left on Wednesday for the World Cup qualifiers in South Africa.

Head coach Felix Oloo confirmed that Vivian Akumu and Naomi Amuguni are the new inclusions to the national team who are expected to make debut in the qualifiers.

Oloo also said that their first match against Madagascar in the qualifiers will determine their performance in the tournament thus putting much focus on their first match.

“We are playing these games one by one so it’s difficult for me to talk about all the teams, we  want to finish playing Madagascar then I will be able to talk about Uganda and Madagascar. Our game with Madagascar should be able to show us how our play will be.

“This time we want don’t want to put our players into much pressure and  our mechanism  is just to let them enjoy, play at their level best so that they can be able to bring out a good performance,” said Oloo.

Kenya will be facing Madagascar for the time in the Rugby 15’s and the Captain Philadelphia Orlando is confident that  the team will be perform having played some of Madagascar players in the sevens

With the young players who have been brought to join them, she is positive that through preparations they will qualify to the World Cup.

“I have played against Madagascar in the sevens and I as I look at our team I don’t think they will be able to defeat us with the young players we are having in the  team we are good to go since its is always good to give them  an opportunity to learn from the veteran players,” she said

The Lionesses jetted out to South Africa today ahead of their match against Madagascar on Friday, August 9 at 2 pm, before taking on Uganda on August 13 at 2 pm. They will then wrap it up against South Africa on August 17 at 4 pm.

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