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Kenya captain Humphrey Kayange feels his team are ready for that elusive first win on the IRB Sevens World Series, but their basics must improve.  

The Shuuja head into this weekend’s fifth leg in Adelaide lying in sixth position after a slow start to their 2009/10 campaign.

Kenya have happy memories from Adelaide making their first final here last year, before falling short against South Africa, and also reaching the last four in 2008.

“It’s a case of us having a good first leg and no so good second leg. It is concentration thing. We’ve gone home and worked on getting our mental preparation right,” said Kayange speaking to UR7s.

“Our basics have not been very good. Passing and defence are things we have looked at. Once it comes to the latter stages of tournaments they need to be perfect really. One bad pass, one missed tackle and that’s the game over.”

The inspirational captain also feels that the balance of Benjamin Ayimbaa’s squad is better this season with a less reliance on brother Collins Injera and himself to win them games.

“Guys like Innocent Simiyu from the backs and Brian Nyikuli from the forwards have really shown up well. New guys to the squad Victor Sudi and Dennis Mwanja bring another aspect to our attack and defence also.

“I think we complement each other now more in the squad and we depend less on certain players.”

The Africans meet Fiji and World Cup winners Wales in the group stages, which kick off on Friday night, with Papua New Guinea also in their group and potentially dangerous. 

Despite Kenya’s development on the IRB Series over the last few seasons they are still awaiting their maiden win, with Kayange admitting the pressure is increasing on the now highly experienced squad.

“It is a very tough and physical group and we have to be up for it from the start. We’ve never beaten Fiji on the Series and we would love to change that and Wales will pose problems for us too. To win these games we will have to focus, take our chances and just be really tight in our tackles.“

“There is some pressure on us for sure. We believe we are a talented team who have been together for a while. We owe to ourselves to go out and win an event. The fans are waiting for that win too and they know it will hopefully come soon and we are going to be going all out for those finals,” added the skipper.

The Kenyans receive fervent support at many of the eight IRB legs, with that set to continue this weekend in Adelaide.

“Whenever we are in Adelaide we seem to be relaxed - the weather is pretty nice here for one! We enjoy each other’s company and there is really good Kenya support here. We love this place.”

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