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The Nairobian

How coach 'Bling' killed three birds with a stone

Rugby

By Rodgers Eshitemi in PARIS, France. | Jul 30, 2024

Nobody could have believed that the Kenya Sevens rugby team would make it to the 2024 Paris Olympics after they were relegated from the World Rugby Sevens Series last year for the first time in 23 years.

But one man, Kevin ‘Bling’ Wambua, made the impossible possible as he steered the youthful side to glory, literally killing three birds with one stone.

With a short-term contract after succeeding Briton Damian McGrath in August 2023, the former Mwamba RFC coach had his work cut out.

First, he guided Kenya to a memorable 17-12 victory over rivals South Africa in the Rugby Africa Men's Sevens 2023 final to secure a back-to-back ticket to the Olympic Games before defying the odds to stun Germany 33-15 in the World Rugby Challenger Series relegation and play-off duel in June 2024 to bounce back to the World Sevens Series.

Having regained their World Sevens Series status, Wambua switched his focus to the Paris Games where he handed debuts to over nine players as the team beat Samoa 10-5 to finish ninth at the Paris Games at the Stade de France on Saturday. This was an improved performance from the 2020 Tokyo and 2016 Rio Games where they finished 10th and 11th respectively.

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With an average age of 23 years, Wambua feels the future of Kenyan rugby looks bright as they take a few weeks break before starting preparing for the new season.

“This is the highest level of sport that any coach and player would like to participate in. There’s a lot of learning and good experiences we can build on,” Wambua told Standard Sports.

“We have to look at the journey, this team is still young, the only experience they had is from the Challenger Series. Look at the opposition we had here in Paris, seasoned players coming from Super Rugby and World Cup."

Wambua’s sentiments were echoed by Sports Principal Secretary Peter Tum who said the government will work closely with the union to ensure all contract issues are sorted out in time.

“Governance has been one of the biggest issues in our federations, but I think that has changed in rugby and we are aware of the contracts concerns. We will engage the union to ensure both players’ and coaches’ contracts are sorted out before the new season begins,” said Tum.