England-based Spencer Davis has been called up to the Kenya Under-20 rugby side ahead of the Junior Rugby World Trophy tournament slated for next month at Nyayo Stadium
Team manager Peter Mutai said the player, who is a student at the London School of Economics, will join the squad next week from his base in London.
“He is a very talented player from what we have seen and we believe he will add value to the squad," noted Mutai
Mutai said they have lined up a couple of friendly matches against university or club sides as a build-up for the tournament.
" We are looking at playing Strathmore or KCB just to get the boys some competition before the tournament and at the same time test our strategies and systems," observed Mutai.
The former KCB scrumhalf said the side has embarked on training camps at KCB Sports Club and by the end of June, they will head to residential training as they step up their preparations.
"For the better part of May, we have had non-residential training camps but as the tournament draws nearer, we will head into residential camp," he added.
Mutai noted the technical bench has been working on the conditioning of the players as well as the defensive pattern for the team.
“We did a review of our final match against Zimbabwe and we saw that we had lapses in defence and missed tackles. So we are working on that in training and building up strength in the boys in terms of conditioning,” added Mutai.
Better known as Chipu, the team has been drawn against Samoa, Spain, and Hong Kong in Pool B and the coach believes they will be up to the challenge.
“ I believe the boys are looking forward to playing tough opposition which in turn will bring out the best in them,” he added.
Elsewhere, Kenya Lionesses remained in 23rd position globally after finishing second at the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup in Antananarivo, Madagascar last week.
This is the Lionesses highest ever ranking, having headed to the week-long competition ranked 25th globally.
The Lionesses have 47.41 ranking points, and remain second in Africa behind South Africa who sit 13th in the world on 66.15 ranking points.
England remain the number one ranked team in the world with 94.55 points with World Champions New Zealand second with 93.19 points.
