Jawichre announces changes for classification duel against Hong Kong

Kenya Under-20 rugby team coach Simon Jawichre has made five changes to the squad ahead of the World Rugby Trophy The deciding match for 7th place is today against Hong Kong at the Hive Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The tactician made two positional changes to the starting line-up, with Andycole Omolo moving from the back row to lock and Elvis Otete switching from the left flank to the right wing.

Nathan Tsindoli, Eugene Ojiambo and Daniel Kipchirchir have been promoted from the bench to the starting line-up.

Chipu lost all three of its group matches in the tournament: 25-7 to Uruguay, 51-3 to the Netherlands and 30-17 to the United States.

Hong Kong (China) also lost all their group matches, losing 20-105 to Japan, suffering a 101-0 defeat to hosts Scotland and losing 19-39 to Samoa in their third match.

Jawichre has called on his pupils to finish the tournament on a high note, after they had already played good rugby during their defeat against the United States last Friday.

“There were encouraging signs last week. We started slowly and built up good plays and momentum to score two good tries. My message to the boys is to play good rugby for the full 80 minutes to get our first win.”

Captain Edmond Omondi said they wanted to do everything they could to start the match against the Asian team well.

“We have had a very slow start in our games and if we can start well and build momentum it will give us a chance to pick up the pace,” said Omondi

He added: “The lads are excited and ready. We want to play a high tempo game, use the width of the pitch and get front football from our attackers to give us the win.”

This will be the second meeting between the two sides, the first being in July 2023 when Kenya hosted the U20 Trophy.

The two teams met on July 25, 2023 in the group stage matches, with Kenya emerging victorious with a score of 22-16. The match will kick off at 1:45 PM.