The Kenya Simbas Head Coach Paul Odera has named the 23-man squad that will take on the Carling Currie Cup Champions select side on Saturday 6th November at 2:00pm EAT at the Loftus Versfeld. The team landed in Pretoria on Wednesday 3rd November and will take part in four matches in the 24 days they are in South Africa.
They had their training sessions on Thursday as they continued with their preparations ahead of the weekend fixtures. Speaking after one of the sessions, Captain Daniel Sikuta stated that the team was in a good mental and physical state that could be seen from the one week camp they had in Nairobi in October up to now.
“We had a recovery session on Wednesday immediately after arriving in South Africa. From the look of things, the boys are ready for the match this weekend, the positive energy can be felt across the board and what we need to do is focus on the task at hand. I strongly believe that we shall come back with good results based on the targets we have set for ourselves,” he said.
Speaking after the Captain’s run, Odera added that the selection for tomorrow’s match is very interesting because they’ve had to look at different scenarios and who can play multiple positions. “This is probably the hardest match the Simbas have played when it comes to the intensity that we are going to encounter. Our strength is that of course we have an athleticism that can pretty much work for us but we also have to counter balance that with holding our own set pieces. We have Kubu and Asati as the half back pairing that will start this match and the good thing about having Asati at 9 is that he is an excellent defender because we do expect a lot of pressure from the side that we will be facing tomorrow.
We have three debutants in the tea, Matoka, Anami and Ashihundu and they are players to truly look out for because they are excellent players in their own right. The mood in the team is very good, I wish I was a young player again because playing in this facility, in a ground like this that has so much history is what players look live for and I think they will do themselves and the country proud,” he concluded.
The match will kick off at 2:00pm EAT at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria. This will be the first match in South Africa that welcomes fans and they are all encouraged to observed the laid down covid19 protocols.
Kenya Simbas squad facing the Carling Currie Cup Champions Select Team
Ian Njenga(Nondies RFC) 2. Eugene Sifuna(Kabras Sugar RFC) 3. Patrick Oyugi(KCB RC) 4. Malcolm Onsando(Kenya Harlequins) 5. Thomas Okeyo(Top Fry Nakuru) 6. Joshua Chisanga(Kenya Harlequins) 7. Dan Sikuta (c) (Kabras Sugar RFC) 8. Stephen Sakari(Mwamba RFC) 9. Samwel Asati(KCB RC) 10. John Kubu(Kabras Sugar RFC) 11. Brian Tanga(Kabras Sugar RFC) 12. John Okoth(Top Fry Nakuru) 13. Vincent Onyala(KCB RC) 14. Jacob Ojee(KCB RC) 15. Darwin Mukidza(KCB RC) 16. Bonface Ochieng(Kenya Harlequins) 17. Andrew Siminyu(University of Jo’burg) 18. Melvin Thairu(Kenya Harlequins) 19. Bethwel Anami*(Strathmore Leos) 20. Fidel Oloo(Nondies RFC) 21. Barry Robinson(Kabras Sugar RFC) 22. Derrick Ashihundu*(Kabras Sugar RFC) 23. Andrew Matoka*(Strathmore Leos).
