Kenya Lionesses braced for France 7s challenge

The Kenya Lionesses have been drawn to play in the final round of the 2015/16 HSBC Women’s Sevens Series in Clermont-Ferrand, France on 28/29 May.

This is their first ever appearance on the women’s series, and are looking forward to the challenge, more so with the 2016 Olympics sevens competition set for August in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Head Coach Mike Shamiah, speaking to Kenya Rugby, observed, “It is definitely great exposure for the team, I think that we will be able to get taste of what the competition will be like at the Olympics.”

Having already taken part in two invitational tournaments, in Dubai and Hong Kong, Shamiah added:

“We go into France looking to gauge ourselves and against the best teams in the world. We are grateful for the opportunity and will look to put our best foot forward and also take the many lessons that are there to be learnt.”

The Lionesses, who are currently a non-core team, have been drawn in Pool A with England, USA and Spain have been in training in Nairobi for the event.

Their men counterparts, Shujaa departed the country for the last two rounds of the 2015/16 HSBC Sevens World Series in Paris and London over the next fortnight.

The team was last in action three weeks ago, defeating Fiji 30-7 to win the cup title at the Singapore Sevens and have been seed top for the Paris Sevens where they are grouped in Pool A with New Zealand, Russia and Portugal.

They will start their Paris fixtures with a match against Portugal on Friday 13 May at 8.00pm EAT (GMT +3) before Saturday fixtures against Russia at 11.30am EAT and New Zealand at 3.03pm.

Local timings for Kenya’s matches in Paris

Friday 13 May

V Portugal 8.00pm

Saturday 14 May

V Russia 11.30am

V New Zealand 3.03pm