NAIROBI, Kenya, July 20 – Despite a rusty display, national rugby 15s head coach Jerome Paarwater is happy to have kicked off their Rugby Africa Championships campaign with a 36-17 win over Senegal at the Namboole Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Paarwater insists getting a win was the most important statistic for Simbas who were made to sweat for victory by the West Africans.
“From my side, I am just happy that this first game is done. We were a bit rusty in the first half…I believe there were a number of points that we could have scored but we haven’t played for seven months and didn’t have a warm-up game with which to prepare,” the South African said.
The Senegalese drew first blood with a penalty goal before a Eugene Sifuna try put Simbas in the ascendancy – Timothy Omela adding the extras for a 7-3 lead.
Sifuna then barged his way through the West Africans for his second try, although Omela could not convert between the posts.
Beldad Ogeta’s twinkle-toed run from the Kenyan half to go over the tryline brought the scores to 19-3 as the lunchtime fixture gradually descended into a mauling by the Simbas.
However, a Senegalese try at the tailend of the first half gave them a glimmer of hope, which was accentuated by a yellow card to Thomas Okeyo.
Despite starting the second half with a man down, it was Simbas who were celebrating courtesy of Bryceson Adaka’s try – the Kabras Sugar man scrambling off a ruck to put the ball over the white chalk.
Unfortunately, Simbas’ disciplinary issue came to the fore soon after when Kabras Sugar’s Ephraim Oduor was banished to the sin bin although the return of Okeyo somewhat made up for the reduced manpower.
However, the one-man advantage showed as the Senegalese scored their second try.
Simbas, however, narrowed the deficit with a penalty before Ogeta notched his brace in the dying embers of the game.
Reflecting on the game, Paarwater said his charges improved in the second half.
“One thing I liked is that we were smarter than them and fitter. You could see in the second half that we were able to play according to our structure. If we play this way in our next game, then we can get the points,” he said.
Echoing his coach’s sentiments, skipper George Nyambua said there were a lot of positives to pick from the game.
“The game was great…the boys acquinted themselves well with the match. We had really prepared for it starting from Nairobi. Now we shift our focus to the next game,” the Kabras Sugar captain said.
He added: “I am really proud of the boys. They have worked very hard. The game was a game of flashes especially in the first half but at least in the second half they improved and the structure worked out as we had planned.”
Simbas will face Algeria in the semis on Wednesday after the North Africans beat Cote d’Ivoire 32-12 in their quarterfinal fixture of Saturday evening.
