Shujaa returned from the final rounds of the 2016/17 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series on Monday night. The team collected a total of 6 points, 1 from the Paris leg and 5 from the London leg to close the season in 12th place with 63 points.
Commenting about the last two legs, Head Coach Innocent Simiyu said, “I think we fired on and off, we were not there mentally and the results showed.”
Having set a target of 10 points per leg at the start of the season, Simiyu, speaking retrospectively, said, “ We had set out a target of 10 points per leg, we collected 63 in total, which averages 6 points per leg. That isn’t bad, especially if you look at it in terms of the resources and the support we received this season. We are happy with what the players put in.”
“ This has been a challenging season, and exciting too. There have been a lot of lessons to learn too and we need to ensure how to play well from start to stop next season,” said Simiyu, in summarizing his first season in charge of Shujaa.
Training his eyes on the upcoming season, the former Shujaa skipper said, “ We set out this year to lay a foundation and structure to enable us have a platform for the new season which also includes the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco and the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. Our pre-season preparations heading into the new season will be very important as we have to work on player skills and conditioning. This will be a crucial element in enabling us find consistency.”
