KENYA SEVENS: How We Got Here.
I have been seeing a lot of people in shock by the conversation that Kenya Sevens is at the verge of relegation from the #HSBCWorldSevens. Well this started a while back when the World Sevens decided to have only 12 teams in the series. This decision was made in order to fit into the Olympic style kind of tournament for only the best of the best. Since Kenya won the #Singapore7s title in 2016. we have only managed to finish in the top 12 4 times with only once have we been able to finish in the top 10.It has been a combination of factors that have led us to this position. One of them being the retirement of Key players who were a permanent fixture in the team. The next has been the constant wrangles that have been at Kenya Rugby Union. The mistrust between the Union and sponsors over financial accountability as well as mistrust between the Union and the Players. This has been a permanent fixture season in and out. So when this season started we had a lot of unavailable players.
So we went to Hong Kong and lost all our matches in our pool that contained Argentina, Ireland and Canada. We also lost in the 13th place play-off to Uruguay and only managed to pickup 1 point in the #HongKong7S.
Next up for Kenya's Shujaa's was the #Dubai7s, here we were pooled alongside Continental Rivals South Africa, and Great Britain and as the first leg went so did the second we managed no wins so yet again we didn't get to reach the main cup quarters. But here an improvement was noted we drew 19-19 with Australia and Drew again 14-14 with Great Britain, with our only loss coming at the hands of South Africa. We beat Canada in the 9th place quarter-finals before losing to Fiji in the semis a total of 5 points were picked up in this leg.
In the Cape Town 7s we managed a draw and two losses again failing to reach the main cup quarters losing to Argentina and New Zealand and drawing with Spain in the pools.
We did manage to however pick up 3 points for this leg for finishing 13th. This was a sign that the season was going to be tumultuous for one of the most followed and loved teams in the World Series; Kenya boasts of a large following throughout the circuit due to its flair and flashy style of play alongside some magnificent celebrations despite the situation they are in.
From Cape Town we went to Hamilton and here all that could go wrong for the Shujaa did go wrong in the pool stage, losing all our Group games to Fiji, France and Samoa but redemption would come as we picked up 7 points for finishing 10th overall. As you have already noted it has become a permanent fixture for us to leave the tournament in the Group stages.
This may come as a shock to many, Kenya has only won two pool games this entire season, I repeat to avoid any contradiction we have won only two pool games this season so far. We beat Uruguay 24-19 in Sydney and the other group stage win was a 12-7 win against Australia in Los Angeles.
The 7 points we have collected in Vancouver, Hamilton and Singapore are the most we have had all season. This puts our overall tally to 37 points which has us in 13th position.
The battle is now on for survival as Kenya head to Toulouse in France hoping that they can manage a main Cup Quarter appearance for the season but this means we will need to get atleast two wins in the pool that has us, Canada and Uruguay who are also battling for survival and New Zealand who are on the hunt for the overall crown.
The next stage will be London for the final Leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series.
Remember the team that is 15th at the end of the Toulouse tournament will face automatic relegation.
And teams ranked 12th, 13th and 14th at the end of Toulouse will enter a four-team relegation play-off together with the Challenger Series 2023 winners at the eleventh and final round of the Series in London. The relegation play-off will be round-robin format with the top two teams then playing a final. The winner will become the 12th core team on the 2024 Series, while the other three teams will enter their respective Regional Sevens Championships in order to qualify for the 2024 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series. The Challenger Series will continue to provide a pathway for teams to qualify for the World Rugby Sevens Series.
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