Oduor says Simbas still have Rugby World Cup chance

Kenya Rugby Union Chairman Gangla Oduor believes the Kenya rugby 15s side can still qualify for the 2023 World Cup as they prepare to play in the Repechage in November.

Simbas will compete in the Final Qualification Tournament, against Portugal, America and the loser of the Asia/Pacific play-offs, Oduor saying although it will be tough he’s confident Kenya will qualify for the World Cup.

“We’re going to give it our best shot. Repechage is very tough because we’ll be competing with the USA and Portugal who’re strong sides so we just need to prepare well,” said Oduor.

“Resourcing is a problem but the performances that we had we’ve given people a lot of confidence that we’re on the right track,” added Oduor.

“Rome wasn’t built in one day so you can’t say that because we lost to Namibia we stop so we’ll only continue and ask people to continue supporting the Simbas, we will play until the day we reach the World Cup,” said Oduor.

Oduor lauded the teams and players who made the national Sevens series successful.

“It’s been an amazing two months of rugby. We hadn't had the sevens circuit for the last two years and still have a lot of young players and the games have been very competitive and even Division two was very tough,” observed Oduor.

“I want to congratulate the winners of the overall circuit Oilers who have won it for the first time and probably they were the most consistent team making it to the finals more than any other team, KCB RFC and Homeboyz did very well. All the teams really played very well,” added Oduor.

The circuit returned after a two years hiatus due to Covid 19 pandemic.