NAIROBI, Kenya, December 2 – National men’s rugby 7s team coach Kelvin ‘Bling’ Wambua is confident key player Chrisant Ojwang will be back to action sooner than expected following an injury sustained against Ireland on Sunday.
Wambua says the assessment of the Nakuru RFC player is much more positive than was initially thought when he was stretchered off.
“Well, we actually thought he had fractured his ankle but Lamech (Shujaa physiotherapist) has said it is not that serious. Yes, he will require some surgery but he will be up and running soon,” the coach said.
Ojwang, a lynchpin of Shujaa’s success in the past year, was taken off in the second half of the ninth-place playoff semi-final encounter on Sunday morning.
It is a significant blow to the team who are already missing the services of former co-captains Vincent Onyala and Tony Omondi as well as John Okoth who is on a long injury lay-off.
Nonetheless, Wambua is maintaining a positive outlook and is keen for Ojwang’ to begin his rehabilitation as soon as possible.
“The injury is not as bad as we earlier thought. Our priority is for him to get surgery as early as today and begin his rehabilitation as soon as possible,” he said.
Shujaa finished 10th at the opening leg of the World Rugby Series in Dubai on Sunday, following a 15-7 loss to Uruguay in the ninth-place playoff final.
It was their first match at that level of the competition in over a year following their relegation at the London 7s in May last year.
A majority of the team are debutants who have been a mainstay of Wambua’s reign, which began in September last year when they won the Rugby Africa 7s in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Taking stock of their run in Dubai, Wambua is proud of his boys’ efforts and is keen to build upon the progress.
“We told ourselves that we are going to be brave and take ownership in this team. The ways the boys played…having 80 per cent of them being new in the squad…you couldn’t even tell that we are inexperienced. Coming close to beating France, beating South Africa and then playing off script against Australia, which is a quality side and then regrouping to beat Ireland and then blowing off the steam against Uruguay,” he observed.
Wambua added: “For me, it’s a positive…two wins, three losses…not really what we wanted but for us it is important to pick up the points that we can at the moment because every point is important.”
Shujaa turn their attention to this weekend’s second leg in Cape Town where they come up, once again, against Australia as well as Spain in Pool B.
The short turnaround notwithstanding, the gaffer is determined to rectify on mistakes that cost them in Dubai.
On his to-do list include maintain their intensity from start to finish.
“We have to be clinical especially from the restart. We cannot play without the ball so for us that’s an area we are going to prioritise so much heading into Cape Town. We have to work on our kicks accuracy so we can contest and get the ball back,” he said.
The coach added: “Also, how we finish our games…we start our games well but towards the end, we don’t manage ourselves better. So it is just a little bit of pressure…how can we manage and soak all that pressure and close off the games.”
