Jawichre shifts focus to World Rugby Trophy after Barthes Cup victory

Kenya U20 rugby head coach Simon Jawichre has lauded his boys for their impressive show against hosts Zimbabwe to win the Rugby Africa Barthes trophy on Sunday.

Chipu as they are fondly known defeated the Junior Sables 28-13 at the Harare Sports Club, to lift the title for the first time since 2019.

The coach acknowledged Zimbawe were a hard nut to crack, but hailed his charges for the zest and zeal exhibited after a slow start.

“This game could have gone either way but it went our way. The boys followed the script to the letter. We put in the work on our set pieces, it showed in the match and the results speak for themselves.

"I want to say thank you for the good messages we’ve gotten from our fans. I believe Kenyan rugby needed this and we decided to give it to them. We’ve got to do the job, we want to start from the ground; we want to take Kenyan rugby up,” an elated Jawichre averred.

Jawichre was particularly happy with Chipu's  execution of set pieces.

“When we landed in Harare, our scrum wasn’t as good as it is now. The one week we have stayed together has really helped us us put some locks and keys in some areas.

"We also had a lot of work on the line-outs because we really wanted to dominate the scrums in the game, and I think it came together for us,” added coach Jawichre.

After conquering Africa, Kenya has qualified for the World Rugby U-20 Trophy in Scotland, set to be played between July 2 and 17.