NAIROBI, Kenya, January 15, 2025 – National men’s rugby 7s team head coach Kevin Wambua is delighted with the return of former co-captain Vincent Onyala after some time out due to a contractual dispute.
Wambua says Onyala’s return to the national set-up, as well as that of Brian Tanga, will greatly aid their efforts to survive relegation from the World Series.
“We are happy to get Onyala back in the squad…Tony (Omondi) was with us last time out in Cape Town. Having Tanga (Brian) back in gives us experience, more control. This will be vital for us in achieving our objectives, which is to finish in top eight (World Rugby Series),” the coach said.
Onyala missed out on the first two legs of the series in Dubai and Cape Town after failing to agree on a new contract with Kenya Rugby Union (KRU).
His fellow co-captain, Tony Omondi, also missed out on the first leg due to the same issue but resolved it in time to make the squad for South Africa.
Shujaa’s focus is on the third leg of the series in Perth, Australia, set for January 24-26.
Wambua has been putting his charges through their paces in Nakuru for the past one week in readiness for the path to glory.
It is a weeklong camp that the gaffer is confident has whipped the boys into shape — mentally and physically — after the festive season.
“We want to be better on and off the ball so we will not say that we will work on our setpiece attack and forget our defence. That is also key, it won us a few games in the last two legs so we are also just firming up on that,” the former Mwamba RFC coach said.
He added: “If you look at our preps for this tournament, we have a week-long camp in Nakuru where we just had the time to sit down as a team…shake off the Christmas blues and get down to business, which was to analyse our games in Dubai and Cape Town and also to look at what the opposition is going to bring to us.”
Perth to glory
In Perth, Kenya will face New Zealand, Uruguay and Fiji in Pool C.
“If you look at Fiji…they won in Dubai and reached the semis in Cape Town…then we have New Zealand and Uruguay. It is no easy pool, which is we are sticking with what we have been doing all along and that is to take it one game at a time,” he said.
Shujaa are currently placed ninth on the 12-team log with 11 points.
Despite the risk of relegation looming large, Wambua is unbothered about the pressure that comes with the same.
“If you look at the 12 teams right now, with the exception of the top five, all the others are under pressure. For us as a technical bench, our main priority is to make sure the boys are comfortable and composed. We as the technical bench take in the pressure, so they can play,” he said.
They begin their campaign against New Zealand on Friday evening (6:00 pm) before squaring up to Fiji at night (10:59 pm).
Their date with the Latin Americans follows on Saturday at 7:00 am.
The opposition notwithstanding, Wambua’s does not plan to deviate from his gameplan — taking it one game at a time.
