•The tactician said he is happy with the side's scrummaging which worked quite well against the Americans.
•The former Kenya Under-20 coach said they will look at new combinations for the encounter against Portugal and give everyone in the squad a chance to play.
Kenya Simbas head coach Paul Odera has attributed their Sunday's 68-14 defeat against USA Eagles in the World Cup recharge in Dubai to a lack of build-up
The former skipper said the team was rusty having played their last game against Namibia in July during the Africa Cup final. On the contrary, the USA have been playing build-up matches for the past two months in Europe and South Africa.
“We have done the boys a disservice. Our last match was three months ago and this was evident against the US. We played well and credit to the boys who never gave up until the last minute," he noted.
A proposed camp in South Africa scheduled for last month failed to materialize due to lack of funds with the team requiring Sh30 million for a high-performance training camp down south.
Odera said they will work on the team's attacking structure ahead of their second match against Portugal on Saturday.
“ Our attack improved as the match progressed and we scored two great tries but we need to sharpen it and work on aspects of it”
The tactician said he is happy with the side's scrummaging which worked quite well against the Americans.
“The USA have the best scrum among the four competing teams and to go toe-to-toe with them in the encounter gives us confidence ahead of the remaining two matches,” he added.
The former Kenya Under-20 coach said they will look at new combinations for the encounter against Portugal and give everyone in the squad a chance to play.
"We have three days of training to improve in certain aspects of play. We know Portugal are on a good team and we expect another tough test from them on Saturday. We will see how the players respond to training," added Odera
Simbas scrumhalf Samuel Asati said a poor second-half performance cost the team. “We battled hard in the first half but we fell away in the second and conceded several points to lose the game,” said Asati.
The USA outscored Kenya by ten tries to two leading 19-0 at the interval.
The Simbas tries were scored by Brian Juma and United Kingdom-based forward Joshua Weru with Darwin Mukidza adding two conversions. In the other fixture of the tournament, Portugal beat Hong Kong 42-17.