Shujaa Sevens
JEDCA SPORTS, Jan 15 – Kenya Sevens head coach Kevin ‘Bling’ Wambua has warned his players not to get relaxed after they managed to win the opening Dubai Challenger and secure top spot in their quest to win back promotion to the top flight at the first time of asking.
Shujaa put on a thrilling performance to see off Chile 12-5 in the Challenger final with Daystar Falcon’s Patrick Odongo once again proving lethal, scoring two tries to win the game for Kenya.
The win capped off a good afternoon for Kenya, but Wambua knows that his side must not rest on their laurels if they are to stand a chance of returning to the big time.
“For us it’s a step at a time, I mean we are happy with this win but we are not going to get complacent,” Wambua said. He added, “We will just go back home and go through our recovery protocols and just focus on the next tournament.”
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Wambua has, however, not hidden his delight at how his boys played over the duration of the tournament and how they managed to dispatch Chile, albeit not easily
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“I feel good, I think the boys had to dig deep for this one. We knew Chile would give us good competition, but I’m glad we were able to use our possession well, we were patient with the ball and we were able to get the scores that got us over the line,” he said.
“I think the restart won us the game, we were able to retain two of our kick offs and that gave us possession and being patient with the ball we got our opportunity to score so that’s an area that we focus our game around and I’m just glad everything ticked off in the last game of the tournament,” he added.
Wambua has had a dream start to his tenure as Shujaa tactician since replacing Darmian McGrath in August 2023. He has already won all the three tournaments he has been in charge of the team, including the African Olympic qualifiers last September and will be hoping he can keep the run going.
