Despite notching their first win of the World Under 20 Rugby Trophy, national team coach Curtis Olago says he was more impressed by his charges’ improvement than the result.
Chipu edged a nerve-racking encounter to overcome Hong Kong 22-16 in their final Pool B match at Nyayo Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
Olago described the game as yet another evidence that the youngsters are growing in leaps and bounds as far as rugby is concerned.
“No, we are not looking at the result but at the growth of the game…are we improving in terms of games management and structure. The result is a bonus…when you play well, the scoreboard always takes care of itself. We are looking to play well, both in defense and in the attack,” Olago said.
He added: “Good job from the boys today…we keep on working. This is not a job that stops today, we must keep on working.”
Kenya began their competition on a sour note, losing 34-25 to two-time champions Samoa on Saturday before falling 48-18 to Spain, last Thursday.
Up next for Olago and his boys is a grudge tie on Sunday against African champions Zimbabwe in their fifth-place playoff match at the same venue.
Both teams are familiar to each other, having met in the final of Under 20 Barthes Cup in May this year, where the Junior Sables won 28-7 in front of a partisan Kenyan crowd at Nyayo Stadium.
The tantalising prospect of revenge notwithstanding, Olago insists the match will be another chance to examine his boys’ transformation into men as far as the sport is concerned.
“We all know what happened in the Barthes Cup. Our game against Zimbabwe is an opportunity as a technical bench to see how far we have improved since then. From the time that we played them, can we see an improvement in attack, defence, and maturity of the game. It’s not about the result, it is all about growth,” he said.
The coach further waxed lyrical about their African opponents, who beat the United States 38-37 in an earlier match to secure third place in Pool A.
“They are a very good and fantastic team…they have really prepared well for this tournament in terms of their technical bench and their structure,” Olago said.
A brick wall
Commenting on the match, Hong Kong coach Logan Asplin commended his charges for their bravery, noting that it was always going to be an uphill task to break through the brick wall that is the Kenyan defence.
“We met a Kenyan wall today that we couldn’t quite break. We did well in the first half not to make many errors and obviously in the second half we did not capitalise on our chances…it was one of main weaknesses today, which is execution. Their defence was quite outstanding and we needed a lot of patient to break through and take our chances,” Asplin said.
The Asian side began the tournament with a 53-0 whooping by Spain before losing narrowly 30-27 to Samoa in their next match.
Asplin gave a pat on the back for his boys, pointing out that there are more positives for them to harness from the two-week tournament in comparison to the negatives.
“There are many positives, including that we are the youngest team in this competition. The improvement from the first game to this one is massive. It’s a huge achievement bringing this group of young players together and hopefully they will play for Hong Kong for a very long time,” he said.
Asplin will now retreat to the drawing board with his players to prepare for their seventh place playoff tie against the United States.
In other matches of the day, Spain beat Samoa 28-10 to top Pool B as Uruguay beat Scotland 37-26 to assume control of Pool A.
The South Americans will face Spain in the final as Scotland meet Samoa in the third-place playoff.
