No margin for error as Lionesses aim claws on South Africa

Kenya Lionesses will have to win their last match against host South Africa in the ongoing Women’s World Cup qualifiers to qualify for the ninth edition of the Women’s 2021 World Cup to be held in New Zealand.

Playing in a round-robin system, Felix Oloo charges has won two games against Madagascar and Uganda whitewashing them 35-5 and 37-5 respectively while South Africa has also won against the two, mauling Uganda 89-5 and outshining Madagascar 73.

The winner in the clash between Kenya and South Africa will be crowned champions of the 2019 Rugby Africa Women’s Cup and will qualify directly for the women’s Rugby World Cup which will take place between July 28 to August 14, 2021 in New Zealand.

The team which finishes as runners up will feature in a play-off match against a selected team from South America with the winner competing in a 4-team global repechage tournament in 2020.

According to the former head coach of the national women rugby team, Lionesses, Mike Shamiah, the girls can outshine South Africa and make history by qualifying for the World Cup for their first time in history.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, the current KCB RFC assistant coach believes that the Felix Oloo charges have to maintain possession and play according to their game plan to overcome the Springbok women.

“To win that game they’ll have to keep the ball and the defence has to be tight because South Africa is a team that hits hard on their opponents direct line and their defence has a hard press,” he charged.

“They need to be sharp in the first half since South Africa will try and hit them hard before they settle, so they have to settle first and keep the ball more in the forwards and the moment they release back the ball they use every opportunity they have to score,” he added.

Shamiah says the girls must avoid being sloppy in the first half like they did in their last game against Uganda.

“In the game against Uganda, Lionesses were a bit sloppy but against South Africa they can’t allow to be sloppy in the first half and they should consolidate their play to points,” he added.

Lionesses wrote history last year beating South Africa for the first time recording a 24-12 victory in the final group match of the Hong Kong Sevens.