Odera shifts focus to Uganda after South Africa tour

Kenya Rugby 15s head coach Paul Odera believes his charges are having the ideal preparations ahead of next year's World Cup qualifier match against Uganda.

The Simbas will take on the Uganda Cranes in a quarter-final fixture next June in Kampala and Odera maintains the three-week boot camp they have had in South Africa has done the team a lot of good.

The Simbas will on Wednesday face Spanish side Diables Barcelona as they conclude their three week tour down South.

“We made mistakes against Uganda but that’s the only way to build character in the team just to give them the ability to have the confidence to try out things in the field,” said Odera.

“It has been a fantastic experience looking at the calibre of teams we have played. We now know where we stand and what we have to do to close the gap between us and Namibia next year and what we have to do is prepare well against Uganda in our qualifiers,” added Odera.

 In South Africa Kenya opened their campaign against hosts Currie Cup 15s  in the Carling Champions match losing 85-14, then went down 60-24 against Namibia before closing out their campaign with a 36-30 win over Brazil, a result that saw them win the bronze medal as Namibia went on to finish first with a 41-10 victory over Zimbabwe.

“We had three main areas to deal with Brazil: put them under pressure, to remain focused and to have confidence to try out things that we have done in training,” emphasized Odera.

“I think we did well in putting pressure on Brazil at the set piece and also putting pressure on them at the tackle but unfortunately we conceded a lot of penalties when we tried to turn over the ball.”