Impala RFC center Sammy Motari in action during a past event.PHOTO/FILE
NAIROBI, April 12 – National sevens head coach Benjamin Ayimba has called up Impala RFC centre Samuel Motari to join the rest of the squad ahead of this weekend’s HSBC Sevens World Series eighth round at the inaugural Singapore tournament.
Motari, who will be making his debut in the team, comes in to replace injured fly-half Biko Adema.
The Nondescript player sustained a hand injury during training that saw him subsequently miss last weekend’s Hong Kong Sevens where Kenya collected 10 points to remain eighth on 63 points.
Motari was slotted as a reserve player in the squad named for Hong Kong and Singapore, and up to his call, his club-mate Sammy Oliech was in charge of the kicking duties.
He last featured in Shujaa’s training camp for the Confederation of Africa Rugby championships in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2014 and majored with the Kenya Fifteens side for a better part of 2015.
Kenya is drawn in a relatively fair Pool C for Singapore where they will lock horns with South Africa, Scotland and Russia.
With only three rounds of the Rugby Sevens World Series remaining, Ayimba will be out to seek a second semi-final Main Cup reach after achieving the fete in the second round at Cape Town 7s.
“We are aiming to collect another 10 points in Singapore. We would like to make it better and improve on our Plate semi final reach in Hong Kong, if we can go all the way to the Cup semis that will be good for us,” Ayimba noted.
“In Hong Kong, I was playing more of a playmaker role after losing Biko Adema who is one of our key playmakers so I had to come and help Sammy Oliech who is still a rookie in certain calls like the distribution of the balls and still managing to score a try was good,” vice captain Collins Injera who grounded his 223rd career try underscored.
Ayimba will be looking to build a formidable squad that will compete at the Rio De Janeiro Olympic Games where the shorter version of the game will be making its first appearance in more than 90 years.
