The national U20 Rugby team head coach Simon Jawichre has retained a bulk of players that won the Barthes trophy in his squad that will participate in the forthcoming World Rugby Junior Trophy scheduled 2nd-17th July in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Jawichre’s squad,nicknamed ‘Chipu’ features nine returning players from the 2023 World Rugby Junior Trophy hosted in Nairobi.
They include: Geylord Ngasi, Andycole Omolo, Iddo Kuta, Wycliffe Ogutu, Nathan Tsindoli, Patrick Wainaina, Faran Juma , Michael Wamalwa and James Olela.
Head coach Simon Jawichre remained hopeful ,buoyed by the preparation that the team has had
” Looking back since the Barthes Trophy, we really wanted our guys to play in the (Rugby) Super Series…a few made it there…quite a number trained without playing. We’ve had two camps after the Super Series…one on our own but we actually had the opportunity to face off with KCB as they were training for the Enterprise Cup. The second week we put ourselves up against the Simbas (the Kenya men’s fifteens senior team) where we had joint sessions together.”
“These sessions helped our boys…it brought up to speed, especially on the mental side of things. When I look at them physically, there’s a few niggly things from the Super Series but all coming in good, they’re coming into shape.The squad going is basically pegged on what we had in Harare. We just wanted to enhance those who were down in one area or another and we focused on just giving them clarity and getting their roles right. To all our stakeholders,KRU, our families, supporters near and wide, pray for us…keep us in prayer and support us in whichever other way you can,” added Jawichre.
Kenya is set to depart for the championship on Thursday next week and will begin their pool B campaign against Uruguay on July 2nd before facing Netherlands on July 7th and will wrap up their pool matches against USA five days later.
Kenya will be taking part in the tournament for the fourth time after appearing in 2009,2019 and 2023 editions.
The winner of the tournament will qualify for the 2025 World Rugby Junior Championship.
