Kenya under-20 side face Canada on Sunday in a classification match after falling 48-34 to favourites Japan on Wednesday in the Junior World Rugby Trophy tournament in Brazil.
Head coach Paul Odera said they will take positives from the defeat and will be aiming to finish the tournament on a high.
"Confidence won’t be in short supply when Chipu takes to the field for the match against Canada. They could lose every game at the Trophy which is not a problem nor a concern for us. My concern is making sure that by the time we leave Brazil, people will respect us for the brand of rugby we play,” said Odera.
Kenya lost their opening match 63-11 to Uruguay but bounced back to beat Brazil 26-24. Japan will face Portugal in the final.
Odera they will have nothing to fear in the encounter against Canada.
“The boys have improved tremendously. We were competitive in the match against Japan, the highest-ranked side — and if we can reduce the error-rate, this team can go places in the years to come,” added Odera.
Chipu started their match poorly and conceded an early try to winger Halatoa Vaile, who crossed over for a converted try for Japan. Chipu responded with a penalty from Dominic Coulson to narrow the gap at 7-3.
Prop Syohei Tsujimura added the second try for Japan on the 18th minute before poor defence at the restart saw Japan quickly score the third try through centre Taihei Kusaka for a 19-3 lead.
Kenya pulled back a try on the 22nd minute with Hibrahim Ayoo capping a beautiful play between Coulson and John Okoth with an unconverted try to reduce the margin to 19-8.
Vailea scored his second try to give his side a 24-8 lead midway through the half. Odera's charges showed flashes of brilliance when Timothy Okwemba crossed the whitewash as Coulson kicked over the conversion for a deficit 24-15.
Vailea completed his hattrick just before the interval as the Japanese led 31-15. On resumption, Geoffrey Okwatch scored a brace of tries with Ian Masheti scoring one try as the East Africans fought their way back into the match.
However, Japan were awarded a penalty try and consolidated their position with two more tries in the closing stages of the match.
