Kenya’s Chipu Sunday finish sixth in the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy after losing 64-10 to Zimbabwe at the Nyayo National Stadium.
Spain withstood a battle of nerves as they rallied from behind 14-0 down to beat Uruguay 39-32 to win the World Under-20 Trophy and qualify for next year’s World Rugby Under-20 Championship.
Openside Monroe Job scored a hat-trick of tries as clinical Scotland beat Samoa 83-10 to secure bronze in the third place play-off as United States of America settled seventh after stopping Hong Kong 47-22.
Chipu trailed 33-0 at the break as full back Nataka Ndoro, winger Benoni Nhekairo and centre Tawanda Matipano landed a brace of tries each to spur the Junior Sables to victory.
Substitute James Tsinalo scored Kenya’s only try as fly-half Faran Juma converted besides curling over a penalty.
Chipu head coach Curtis Olago said the results were quite disappointing since it didn’t go as they had planned.
“But again, it’s all about what kind of preparations you put in place ahead of tournaments of such magnitude,” said Olago.
Olago said that two weeks or a month of preparations can’t yield results against teams that have been preparing for the event since last year.
Olago said that it also goes beyond just having a team longer in camp.
“It goes back to talent search and moulding, then the selection,” explained Olago, adding that it’s good that that they participated and now have first-hand experience on the importance of having clear structures.
Olago said that it was a reality check for Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) and hopes the union will have initiative age group competitions to supplement secondary schools competitions.
“Previous regimes didn’t take age group competitions seriously but I hope Sasha Mutai’s team will turn things around and I believe there will be progress,” said Olago,
“Recourses and early preparations that include build up competitions is what we needed…we went into this event without a single competition,” said Olago.”We just couldn’t match our opponents’ physicality and technical know-how, things that come with exposure to quality competitions.”
Olago said national teams training should focus on details through specialised sessions.
“We must have specialised training in lineout, attacking lineout, defensive lineout, effective scrum and zone clarity,” said Olago.
