We failed our national 15s rugby team

The national 15s rugby team, The Simbas faced Germany last evening in Marseille, France as the curtains came down on the 2019 Rugby World Cup Repechage.

The match against the Germans was just a formality as Simbas lost to Canada and Hong Kong in the three-week tournament which was used to select a team to join New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Namibia in Group B of the World Cup in Japan next year.

It means that Kenya will not be playing at the World Cup despite having been giving a second chance after losing to Namibia in the Africa qualifiers.

The 65-19 loss to Canada in the opening match of the Repechage showed that our team was not prepared for the competition and losing to Hong Kong confirmed that the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) and the Sports ministry had let them down.

The team left for France with little preparation and we lied to ourselves by expecting more from a team that we did not give the support they needed.

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Players boarded Ethiopian Airlines plane for Europe complaining about lack of allowances and poor preparation ahead.

How could KRU and the Sports ministry expect them to beat other well-prepared teams and book a place in the World Cup without playing a meaningful build-up match?

We should learn to prepare a team well if we are to reap any results instead of just sending teams into competition and hope that a miracle will happen and they will perform well.