Kenya Lionesses head coach Dennis Mwanja has lauded his charges after the team put on a stellar performance in Cape Town, South Africa to win the opening Challenger leg of season.
The ladies sevens team engraved their names in the history books after winning their first international tournament, placing themselves in a prime position to qualify for the HSBC Challenger play offs in Los Angeles later in the season
“Coming to Cape Town, the build-up, the journey to this first assignment has been a tough on; we played in the qualifiers in Ghana and fell short to South Africa towards the end of last year and from there we purposed to have a good outing in the challenger series. Our build up has been a tough and challenging one.”
The “Iron Man” as he’s fondly known in the local rugby scene had exuded confidence of posting positive results before heading to SA and true to his word they put Samoa, Poland, South Africa and Argentina to the sword to complete a perfect weekend down south.
Mwanja observed that the recent sponsorship by Safaricom MPesa was a big boost for the team as they exerted their revenge on rivals South Africa in the semis, with the Springbok ladies having denied Lionesses a chance to play in the Olympics last year.
“The sponsorship of Safaricom MPesa has been very good to us, a huge shot on the arm to our player welfare. We know that a happy player is a good player, so the players have been really dedicated and motivated having got a sponsor finally. So, we were looking to beat South Africa; the girls had this target on South Africa because we fell short to South Africa in the Olympics qualifiers and also in Ghana, so it’s always been an African dominance thing and beating them was great for us and a huge mental booster; after getting to the semis and beating them, we knew we will get this cup.”
The Lionesses were in red-hot form the whole weekend as Captain Grace Okulu led from the front with a couple of tries with Judith Okumu and Freshia Oduor announcing themselves to the world with some scintillating pace and tries.
Mwanja says they’re razor-focused to make it to the Playoffs in LA in May this year.
“This doesn’t stop here; this is just the beginning. Aside from beating South Africa, we look at the bigger picture of finishing in the top four; securing maximum points will put us in a position to qualify in the top four and qualify for the final playoff in Los Angeles. So the journey is still on for us; our work is cut out and the girls are ready for the challenge.”
The Lionesses focus will now shift to the next challenger leg in Krakow, Poland in April.
By Alex Kinyua
