Kisumu RFC to miss Driftwood 7s due to injuries, coach Okaron says

Kisumu RFC head coach Oscar Okaron has revealed his team will not honor the fifth leg of the National Sevens circuit, the Driftwood 7s, in Mombasa this weekend, due to several injuries in their lean squad.

Kisumu are yet to register a win in the national circuit despite hosting the third leg, Dala 7s, and Okaron admits they are struggling to rebuild the team following the departure of their star players for greener pastures.

“I don’t think we are going to travel to Driftwood because we had a couple of injuries and since our squad depth is quite wanting, we are not going to honor Driftwood. It has been a tough season for us, it has not gone well during the 7s circuit because we lost so many players due to transfer, so we are trying to rebuild the team. Our team is having young players mostly Under -23 so that experience is a bit lacking but we still have time to polish a few things,” noted Okaron.

Okaron says their focus is on preparing the team for the Kenya Cup which starts in slightly over two months.

“We are approaching 15s season and we have around two and half months to the start of the 15s season and because of that good time we can prepare well. We’ve already started working with the 15s and trying to work on the ills and experience of the young players, and I’m very hopeful and confident that being a development coach it's not going to take long to rebuild Kisumu RFC,” he averred.         

Okaron also bemoaned the move by top sides to continue poaching players from community teams, leaving them struggling when they face such established teams like Kabras Sugar, KCB and Kenya Harlequin.

“I think the way forward is concentrating on the Under 23 and building a team around the community, because the main challenge has been losing players to the corporate sides because of lacking depth and finances. When you concentrate on building the players around the community, it will be easy to rebuild from your depth even when you lose players to big teams,” said the tactician.

Driftwood 7s will see Mombasa RFC, who have not played in the sevens circuit so far this season, feature in Division One by virtue of being hosts as the circuit nears its end.