NAIROBI, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's rugby 15s team will pitch camp in South Africa ahead of their final preparations for their World Cup qualifying campaign in June.
The team beat hosts Uganda 34-16 in the first leg of the Elgon Cup in Kampala last week, but will have no time to rest as head coach Ian Snook looks to build on the team's performance that could to see Kenya qualify for a Rugby World Cup for the first time.
The training camp is planned for June 6-16. However, the team, also known as Simbas, will not break camp and will continue with their reconditioning and recovery ahead of their trip to South Africa. Team manager Wangila Simiyu noted that tough Kenya did well to edge out Uganda, the Simbas still have a big task ahead of them.
"It was a good performance in Kampala, but there is still a lot of work to be done," Simiyu said. The Simbas still need to improve in all departments since the World Cup qualifiers will be a different ball game. "I know the team was under pressure and it was the first assignment for the New Zealand coach. We are happy they coped well with the pressure to deliver the results. Now we must raise the bar ahead of the World Cup qualifiers," Simiyu said.
The Simbas start their campaign away to Morocco on June 23 before hosting Zimbabwe and Uganda on June 30 and July 7 respectively. The Simbas will then host Tunisia on August 11, and will wind up their campaign for a place in the 2019 World Cup away against Gold Cup holders Namibia on August 18.
The winner will join South Africa at the World Cup while the second placed team will enter the World Repechage group with four teams from Asia, Oceania and America for the final ticket to Japan 2019.
