Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenya Under-20 coach Curtis Olago has made six changes to the team ahead of today’s second match against Spain in the Junior Rugby World Trophy at Nyayo Stadium. Olago has handed James Olela the fullback position while George Otieno and Mike Oduor will start in the front row.
Stanslaus Shikoli, one of Chipu’s try scorers last weekend, has been relegated to the bench following a bout of illness and with Edmund Omondi taking up his position at lock.
Vincent Omondi starts ahead of Iddo Kuta at openside flanker while Victor Odhiambo has been given the nod on the right wing in place of Alvin Mwamburi, who drops to the bench.
Faran Juma, who started last weekend’s match at fullback, has been moved to flyhalf in place of Eddy Wambugu who has been rested for this fixture. Olago said following Saturday’s 34-25 defeat to Samoa, they have done an extensive review of what went wrong.
“We have been working on sorting out our mistakes from our opening game and trying to get a rhythm in terms of attack,” noted Olago.
“I believe we defended fairly well in our last game but as we head into the clash against Spain, our attack system should be able to put the opponents under pressure.” The KCB head coach believes the team needs to dominate possession and be clinical when the chances come.
“I believe we need to win the collisions upfront because we lost a lot of ball in contact play. We need to hold the ball for longer periods to put Spain under pressure and score points,” he added.
Olago said lapses in concentration and poor defensive patterns were at play in the defeat to Spain. “The second half is where we lost the game. The unforced errors made us lose that game so our concentration and patterns in defence have to be better for the Spain game,” he observed.
He described Spain as a tactical and clinical team. “We have studied their videos and we know what we are up against and we are well prepared,” he noted.
Spain won their first match after thrashing Hong Kong China 53-0 to top the pool alongside Samoa with five points with Kenya on a point. In other fixtures, Samoa will play Hong Kong China at 10 am, Uruguay face Zimbabwe at midday and Scotland take on the USA at 2 pm.
For More News And Analysis About Kenya Follow Africa-Press
