Kenya names rugby team for HK, Japan series

Kenya's rugby team head coach Felix Ochieng on Thursday named the 12-man squad that will do duty at the sixth and seventh legs of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Hong Kong and Japan.

Former captain Humphrey Kayange, who has returned to the team, has been out of action since sustaining an ankle injury at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland last August.

"Humphrey has worked hard but still has his own personal targets to achieve but I am not going to focus on him alone," Ochieng said during the unveiling of his traveling party in Nairobi.

Ochieng said he was focusing on getting the best combinations in every position to be able to give them team the best possible results going forward.

"We have got teams that are pretty consistent in their structures and the way they play," the tactician added on the tough Hong Kong pool that will see his side take on England, Wales and USA coached by former Kenyan coach, Mike Friday.

"We know it's going to be a tough pool but we are expecting to apply what we have been doing at home and obtain positive results," he added.

Kenya are lying 12th on 29 points after a poor start to the season, only showing glimpses of their quality at the last tour of Wellington and Las Vegas where they managed to qualify for the Main Cup quarters for the first time in the current campaign in New Zealand.

"We are doing everything possible to ensure that the team is ready and able to take on the challenge," Kenya Rugby Union chairman Richard Omwela, who was re-elected on Tuesday, said in his first official engagement since the polls.

The team departs Sunday and returns to the country on April 7. Endite