By BS MULAVI

National Sevens rugby team will charge at full throttle pushing for maximum points in the final round of the International Rugby Board Sevens circuit in London today.

It has been a long, gruelling campaign for the Sevens team after the IRB added an extra round in Tokyo to take the series tally to nine rounds. This move has seen head coach Mitch Ocholla face quite a tumultuous first season at the helm.

Ocholla’s tactic not to depend too much on some key players has more often than not failed to work leaving him no choice, but has strived to use whatever players he has at his disposal.

Ocholla has missed Kenya’s best player Humphrey Kayange on several occasions amongst other players like Lavin Asego, Oscar Ouma, Collins Injera and captain Sidney Ashioya.

This exposed him as the team struggled to get the systems fully functional. Ocholla was the successor to Benjamin Ayimba.

In London, Ocholla faces a tough test against defending champions New Zealand, the current leaders in the table standings, who are on course to defending their title.

Kenya will have the support of Fijians who expect Ocholla troops to invoke a performance similar to the one they had over Australia last weekend.

Scotland’s Andrew Turnbull tries to evade a tackle by  Lavin Asego in Glasgow Sevens last week.  [PHOTO: AP AND STANDARD]

Kenya’s other game will be against Argentina who are experiencing an average season, while their last game will be against Russia, who should be a modest opposition if the talent in Ocholla’s side is anything to go by.

This will be Kenya’s best chance to get into the Main Cup quarterfinal after dismal shows in all the other previous legs save for the USA round where they made the Main Cup quarterfinal for the first.

Kenya has nothing to prove and fans will not have any demands to pressure the team to win the Main Cup trophy, but rather just strive to make the quarterfinals.

This will be Kenya’s last chance to use the big stage to prepare and post a formidable challenge in the qualification for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janairo.

FIXTURES

Kenya vs Argentina - 14:20

Kenya vs New Zealand - 17:04

Kenya vs Russia 19:28