Kenya Under-20 rugby coach Simon Jawichre wants the team to undergo serious preparations to compete at the World Rugby Trophy in the next two years.
Jawichre’s charges finished last in the two-week-long competition a week ago in Scotland and the tactician believes they have learnt vital lessons.
“Going forward, preparations should be a priority because this has been the biggest undoing of our national squads for the last couple of years. We need to put the team in camp early and work on all facets of play,” said Jawichre.
The young side trained for three weeks for the global show with a proposed training camp to South Africa shelved due to a lack of finances.
The Catholic Monks tactician said with half of the squad expected to move up to the senior side, the planning for the next cohort of young stars has to start now.
“ We will be consulting and talking to Paul Odera who is Kenya’s Under 18 coach as well as Biko Adema, who handles the Under 15 side. We have to gauge some of the young players who are coming through the ranks to start our talent identification early and plan accordingly for the next Africa Cup and World U-20,” said Jawichre
The side, known as Chipu, lost their opening match to Uruguay 25-7, Netherlands 51-3, USA 30-17 and Hong Kong 30-17 to finish last in the competition.
The coach said they must go back to the drawing board to sort out various facets of play.
“Overall, our tactical play needs to be sharper. While our scrum was solid, our lineout malfunctioned a couple of times. Defensive alignment and overall core skills at the elite level must improve across all our age groups,” he added.
Jawichre said they have a meeting with the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) Squads Management Committee to plan on the way forward.
“We will have a review with the union and see the way forward. We must look at ways of strengthening the various age-grade rugby tournaments to be in good shape for the next Africa Cup in Zimbabwe next year.”
Chipu’s best-ever performance in the Under-20 competition came in 2019 under Paul Odera when they finished fifth in Brazil.