Kenya Lionesses, N. Zealand in Pool A of Dubai 7s

The ladies were invited for the second time to participate in the HSBC Women’s Sevens Series after they were crowned the Africa Women’s Sevens champions earlier this year.

In 2016 they participated in the Clermont before heading out to Brazil for the Rio Olympics.

They join Ireland, Russia and the Glendale Champions New Zealand. Pool B, hosts the Glendale runners up and hosts, USA, the 2017 Dubai7s defending champions Australia, England and China while Pool C sees Canada, France, Spain and Fiji battle it out for a chance to make it to the Dubai7s finals.

Lionesses Head Coach Kevin Wambua said that being in a tough pool is a good thing as it will be the best test to help him and the ladies gauge themselves as they prepare for the Qualifiers next year.

“Our main goal is to be ready for next year, it’s big for us as we have qualifiers for the HSBC Series as well as the Olympics in Tokyo. We want to use this tournament to test some of the new players coming into the system.”

Training so far has been very positive, we have brought in some new players who have a lot of potential in them. Our main focus especially with them is then need to fine tune their skill set in preparation for the coming year.”

The HSBC Women’s World Rugby Sevens Series kicked off on 20th October in Glendale Colorado, USA. The New Zealand All Blacks were crowned champions as they saw off the hosts, USA Eagles 33-7 in the final.