Improvement in setpiece and defence will be the two areas Simbas head coach Paul Odera says they must get right ahead of the Africa Rugby World Cup qualifiers final against Namibia in France on Sunday.
The Simbas were made to fight tooth and nail by an energised Algerian team, ranked 82 in the world, before winning 36-33 in a nerve-wracking semi-final encounter in Marseille on Wednesday.
Odera said: “We struggled a bit in the setpieces but we have to give credit to them (Simbas). Every time Algeria came back at us, we were able to get ahead. Algeria, as expected, were going to be a tough opponent. They were always going to put us under a lot of pressure in the forwards.”
The former international said the team needs to improve in the lineout but observed that even higher-ranked teams struggle to defend rolling maul which saw Algeria score twice in the encounter.
"Even the world's best teams find it hard to stop a rolling maul. The key for us heading into the final is that we must find a way to stop the rolling maul from the source,” said Odera.
On defence, Odera said the side must improve one-on-one tackling and defensive pattern for the match against Namibia.
"Our tackling technique and shape is something we will work on for the next two days since we had a couple of missed tackles which saw Algeria score,” added Odera.
The former Kenya under 20 coach, however, hailed the resilience when facing adversity in the final quarter of the match with the team pinned in their own half.
"Credit to the boys they dug deep especially the final 15 minutes of the game to survive the onslaught from Algeria was commendable and it augurs well for the final,” noted Odera.
Inside centre, John Okoth, continued his rich vein of form for the Simbas, scoring twice with fullback Darwin Mukidza hooker Eustace Sifuna and outside centre Bryceson Adaka scoring a try each, Mukidza converted three tries with substitute Jone Kubu adding a penalty and a conversion.
The North Africans scored five tries one of which was a penalty try awarded by referee Ben Blair for collapsing the scrum. Four of the tries were converted.
Kenya led 21-14 at the interval. In the other semi-final, Namibia beat Zimbabwe 34-19 to book their ticket to the final.
