The Kenya U-19 team that will be travelling to Windhoek, Namibia for the CAR Division 1A rugby Championship from August 24-28 was named on Tuesday at the RFUEA grounds by the head coach Paul Odera.
Chipu has reached the semifinals of the competitions twice in 2013 and 2014, with the team settling at third place last year.
The team has been at a non-residential camp for five weeks, and Odera is optimistic with the changes made ahead of the Championship.
"Our target is to at least get a silver medal, [and] that means beating Zimbabwe in the semifinal. We lost 17-25 to them last season but we do believe it is very possible to bridge that gap,” he said.
This year’s squad features fitter, lighter and taller players compared to last year.
It is hoped the squad will match the Zimbabwe Sebos counterparts who have since used their lightweights and tall heights to their advantage.
“Zimbabwe avoided scrums last year and most of the times they kicked the ball for touch punishing us at the line outs. This time round we will focus on the set-pieces especially the lineouts,” he noted
The squad also features three players from last year, David Keta, Mike Kimwele, Roxy Suchi.
Plans are underway to ensure that another batch of ten players will be eligible to play next year to build continuity within the age grade system.
Edgar Menya, Erastus Karani and Bob Otieno have been ruled out of the competitions due to injuries sustained during the camp training.