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"We have a plan," is all Kenya Sevens coach Innocent "Namcos" Simiyu could divulge following the announcement of the draws for the opening two legs of the 2021-2022 World Rugby Sevens Series in Dubai.
Kenya are in Pool B of the first leg that is scheduled for November 26-27th at The Sevens stadium.
They will tackle the Eagles of USA (9.16am), Pumas of Argentina (1.30pm) and Leones of Spain (4.02pm) in their group assignments on day one. After World Rugby announced the pools and match schedule for the Series opening event, Simiyu said, "It is a tough pool. Anyone can get out and qualify for the knock-outs."
He added: "We have a plan on how to play all the teams. It's just a matter of execution." Kenya have met Argentina, USA and Spain several times this year, including at the invitational tournaments in Madrid, Dubai and Los Angeles. Shujaa has had a difficult time escaping loss against Argentina and has registered mixed results against the USA and Spain.
Simiyu's charges suffered defeats against Argentina during the two warm-up tournaments in Madrid, Spain before the Tokyo 2020 Games. The Africa champions lost in the final in Madrid 21-14 on February 21 and 45-7 on February 27.
Simiyu is expected to unveil his tour party from the 22 players he has in training this Friday. One player definitely out of the tour is Russia-based William Ambaka. "He is injured. He will be available from next year," said Simiyu, who guided Shujaa to third place finish at the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series, and won the Safari Sevens in Nairobi in October.
New players in 'Namcos' squad hoping to make the cut are Zeden Marrow, Austin Sikutwa, Kevin Wekesa, Archadius Kwesa, Ben Salem, Richiel Wangila, Collins Shikoli, Earnest Obat and Timothy Okwemba. Impressive Alvin "Buffa" Otieno will be the Kenyan to watch in Dubai after a swashbuckling performance last season.
England speedster Dan Norton currently leads the series all-time top try scorer with 354, followed by Injera on 279.
The 12-team men’s competition will follow the Olympic format with three pools of four teams each, while in the 10-team women’s event the teams are divided into two pools of five. In the men’s event Pool A includes Fiji, fresh from retaining their Olympic title in Tokyo, together with Australia, Canada and France. USA were beaten finalists in Dubai in 2019, when they finished the series as runners-up.
In Pool C, the 2021 series champions South Africa will take on Ireland, Great Britain and Japan, who were promoted as World Rugby Challenger Series champions in 2020. The Blitzboks will be in a confident mood following their perfect win record during the pair of Canada Sevens events in September. New Zealand’s men’s and women’s teams, who won the respective series titles in 2020, and Samoa’s men’s team are unable to participate in Dubai due to travel restrictions.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Sevens – originally planned to take place on 1-3 April – will be rescheduled to 4-6 November 2022, when it will serve as the opening event of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023.
Hong Kong will host a second event in the 2023 series six months later in its traditional April window, doubling the enjoyment of this popular event for fans. World Rugby is considering potential options for a replacement event in the 2022 series and further information will be shared in due course.