The Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team’s pool opponent Kenya will be a fired-up side when they meet at the London 7s next weekend.

This was after the Kenyan 7s team are set to benefit from a FJ$1.1 mil­lion the Kenya Rugby Union is to receive from their government. The funds is designed to help the Ken­yan Rugby national teams achieve their objectives.

Financial struggles have affected the Kenyan 7s team’s performance in the 2018/19 HSBC World Sevens Series and the government earlier this year promised to financially support the sevens team and have kept to their words.

The Kenyan 7s team have two im­portant tasks. One is to perform well in the remaining two tourna­ments of the series and steer clear of the relegation spot. The second is to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, which means winning the African Olym­pic Games qualifiers.

KRU vice-chairman Thomas Opi­yo said they are confident that the funds would arrive soon.

“We had a meeting and we pre­sented what we required,” Opiyo told Capital Sport.

“We are confident they will release the funds soon and that will ease lots of pressure especially now that we have three teams going into seri­ous international engagements.

“We have been made to understand you have to submit your budget for the whole year six months before the start of the financial year.

“This year we should have sub­mitted in January but now that we weren’t aware of that, the ministry said we will work around that.

“The moment we access these funds, there won’t be problems with the national teams.”

Kenya are 13th on the HSBC Rug­by Sevens world standings on 26 points after eight tournaments, four points clear of relegation spot occupied by Japan.

In London, they are in Pool B with Fiji, Samoa and France.

Edited by Osea Bola

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