NAIROBI, Dec. 7-- Kenya's rugby head coach Paul Murunga said Friday that Kenya may not secure automatic qualification for the Olympic Games owing to its poor start to the World Series. The team, which finished eighth in last season's campaign, could only manage one point in Dubai, the first leg of the rugby sevens World Series. This meant the team finished last out of the 14 teams that took part. Kenya's performance will be put to test again this weekend in Cape Town, the second stop of the 10-leg World Series circuit and coach Murunga has reacted by bringing on board Vincent Onyala and Cyprian Kuto to seal his leaky defense. The top four teams in the series will qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Kenya benefitted from this automatic qualification in 2017 when they finished top four. "We are not strong enough to challenge. Our youth team has been baptized by fire and they need to build from it and focus on the work ahead. We planned for 10 points in each leg, but we only had one," said Murunga. Alongside the four top countries from the sevens World Series, six teams qualify by finishing first in their respective continental championships - Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia, South America, and North America to join the host and another team that wins a special inter-continental competition. In South Africa, Kenya is in Pool C where they have to navigate their way past Olympic champions Fiji, France and England to make it to the tourney's main cup contest. |