As Blitzboks returned to a heroic welcome in Cape Town on Tuesday, Kenya Sevens jetted back to a low-key reception from London 7s where they concluded 2016/17 HSBC World Sevens Series.
Only Kenya Rugby Union officials and members of the press were at JKIA to receive Kenya after a disappointing season where they finished at position 12 with 63 points as head coach Innocent ‘Namcos’ Simiyu says they need to look at many things to improve.
“I think we fired on and off, more of a mental issue for us. Our preps (Paris and London) being messed leading to the tournament and the results do show in terms of performance.”
“A lot of things we need to do from the management point of view looking at the players and also in terms of pre-season, we didn’t have one which messed us in regards to having the foundation we can build on.”
Namcos had targeted 10 points per leg but that was not achieved as they got an average of six in the 10 stop leg.
Namcos also termed his first season in the HSBC Sevens series as challenging but also exciting and he can’t wait for next season.
“It’s challenging, there has been a lot of learning in terms of the games but also it has been very exciting, some of the strategies we’ve put have been working well but we failed to close a couple of critical games in the pool games which have ended up determining our fate in day two. For us next season the biggest thing is how do we ensure we play well from minute one to 14.”
