Fresh from bagging 10 points in Singapore, Kenya have been drawn to face England, France and Spain in tricky Pool 'C' in next month's Paris Sevens.
Singapore winners Canada top Pool ‘A’ and will face series leaders South Africa, Scotland and Japan with beaten finalists USA facing New Zealand, Wales and Argentina in Pool ‘B’.
Australia, Fiji, Samoa and Russia face off in Pool ‘D’.
The team had arguably their best performance of the season in Singapore over the weekend despite being bundled out by England 13-12 in controversial circumstances in the main cup quarterfinals with Welsh referee Craig Evans awarding England a debatable penalty in the dying seconds to send Shujaa crashing out.
Kenya and Spain have not met this season, with the European outfit having been promoted to the top tier after winning the qualifiers in Hong Kong last week. Kenya and France have three times this season with the Innocent Simiyu’s losing the opener 24-14 in Dubai but bounced back to hammer the French 33-14 in Cape Town and recently in Hong Kong edged them 29-12. It will, however, be a tall order to beat them in their backyard.
Kenya and England have met four times this season with former colonial masters winning all encounters. Kenya lost to England 31-12 in Wellington, 19-12 in Sydney, 28-14 in Vancouver and 13-12 in Singapore. Kenya have amassed 57 points to lie 11th on the standings and coach Innocent Simiyu believes they can finish the season strongly after an improved performance in Singapore.
“The boys played well. I think there are or one two areas that we need to tighten up to enable us be in a strong position in Paris and London,” said Simiyu.
Skipper Andrew Amonde believes they can move into the top 10 with a similar effort in the final two tournaments.
“It’s been an up and down season but we clicked in Singapore and made it to the Cup quarters and who knows, we may have made it to the semifinals. All in I think the boys have seen what it takes to get to this level they have learnt through their mistakes and we will come out stronger next month,” observed Amonde.
Amonde did not want to be drawn into the contentious calls by referee Craig Evans in the one point loss to England in the main cup quarterfinals.
South Africa top the standings with 145 points followed by Fiji (132), England (130), New Zealand (110) as USA complete the top five with 101.